Cards Left To Play
by Lapis Love
Summary: Just because I made it home and she's still stuck in 1994 doesn't mean I'm going to let things remain that way. It's my job to protect the Bennetts and there's one in particular I owe my life, my blood, my everything to. I just need her to hold on until I can figure out a way to get back to her. But I'm coming. And nothing will stop me. Post 6x05 fic.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: When Lapis is dissatisfied she writes. This is a quickie post 6x05 story that I'm not exactly sure I will continue. I'd love to but only if there's a genuine interest for it. Thank you kindly in advance for giving this a chance. **

Disclaimer: These characters belong to their respective owners. LJ Smith/CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

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><p>Virulent emotions ransacked her as soon as her eyes shot open and she was staring up at a night sky. Her skin was sticky and hot, the pungent smell of the cave mixed with that of the metallic aroma of her blood. She had awakened to part two of her nightmare.<p>

Groaning, Bonnie Bennett shifted her head to the right and saw nothing but empty space. Tears pebbled in her eyes. It worked. He was gone. She sent him home.

Part of her was overjoyed while a much larger part was filled with unbearable misery. The cave was dark making it near impossible to see, but she could just make out enough, and didn't spot a lump in the form of one sociopathic warlock nearby. That gave Bonnie pause but also relief.

Kai was gone and wherever he was, was the last place Bonnie wanted to be. She thought for a moment as she gingerly sat up, blinding-hot pain shooting through her abdomen, she wondered why he didn't drain her of her powers and ultimately kill her while she had been at her most vulnerable.

Had he gotten to the spot where the light from the eclipse beamed down and he was sucked up into the portal with Damon? Those last few moments right after she told Damon he was going to make it were cloudy. Cloudy but also clear.

That expression on Damon's face as he realized what she meant to do—sacrifice her chance to be reunited with her friends just so he could go home, killed her. He had been prepared to jump out of the portal but it sucked him up much too quickly.

Fresh tears coursed down Bonnie's cheek as she shakily got to her feet.

It had been a slow climb out of the cave, injured as she was. Her fingernails were caked with dirt, clothes smeared with it, but Bonnie didn't care. Once she made it out and took a deep refreshing breath she immediately went on the offensive.

Kai couldn't be killed. She didn't know if that rule applied to her as well and she definitely wasn't in the mood to find out. The forest was creepily silent. This would be her first time in four months she'd be totally alone, and the thought made her skin pebble with fear.

_No time for that_, Bonnie shook the thought out of her head before it could form and take root. She had her magic back. She made the device work. She sent Damon home. She could…

Bonnie sat down on the pile of dirt breathing deeply and trying not to scream at the very top of her lungs. She was stuck in hell now, for real this time and her only way of getting out was destroyed.

She did what she could. Did the right thing, right? She had been injured but certainly; and it was just now occurring to Bonnie that if she had the power to telekinetically flip Kai off of Damon, pull Damon to the portal spot, place the adscendent in his hand, activate it fully then surely she could have teleported herself to his side as well.

No, there was no time for second-guessing her decision making skills and feeling remorse.

Pushing herself up, Bonnie made the trek through the forest, eyes constantly darting and on the move anticipating a sneak attack from Kai. Where the hell was he? Where the hell had he been hoarding himself before making his presence known? Bonnie figured she could get answers later or not at all. Getting to safety was tantamount to anything else.

She climbed into Damon's Camaro and burned rubber to the hospital where she pilfered what medical supplies she needed, and reached the boardinghouse right before dawn.

Breathing heavily she listened carefully for sounds of another person being on the premises. With her powers reinstated, Bonnie could detect when another witch or warlock was close by. For the time being it would seem Kai was nowhere to be found. If he knew what was best for him, he'd keep it that way.

She hovered in the foyer, closed her eyes and placed a protection ward around the house that would bar anyone from entry. Hopefully it would hold but most importantly work.

Bonnie made her way into the living room and immediately created a fire in the hearth. The lights flickered on. The light gave her comfort and tricked her into thinking she wasn't here completely alone.

She took in the scope of the living room. The sheer size of it dwarfing her already elfin presence. Her eyes lingered on the bottles and decanters of bourbon and whiskey longer than they probably should have. Bonnie looked to her right, her feet wanting to carry her to the kitchen. The only other room she and Damon had spent a great deal of time in.

She thought back to her first night cooking a meal for the both of them. She'd never admit to feeling a bit nervous and self-conscious about her cooking, and if he'd like it. His pancakes sucked, but if there was one dish she mastered it had been chili.

Damon had a blood bag which he ignored it in favor of breaking bread with her. Her philosophy teacher had posed this question to the class: what was the most intimate thing two people could share? Of course the answers had ranged from sex to shopping, but then he questioned: what could be more intimate than sharing a meal with someone you love?

At the time Bonnie didn't think that could equate intimacy. Her opinion had since changed.

Bonnie sucked in a deep breath and got to work on healing her body.

An hour later she could move without holding her breath as pain pinched her nerves. Bonnie went upstairs and journeyed into the bedroom that had become hers overtime.

Being here didn't feel right. She looked across the hall. The door to Damon's room was wide open and before she could stop herself, Bonnie had made her way inside.

It was dark but she flicked the light on and started yet another fire in the fireplace. Everything was as it should be, but there was a book turned face down on the bedside table. Bonnie strolled over and picked it up. She read the cover and then flipped it to where it had been bookmarked.

"'_She is sitting there before me. There is the graceful outline of her form; it cannot be mistaken — there is nothing like it. The two countesses had no outlines at all, and the dowager's was a demd outline. Why is she so excruciatingly beautiful that I cannot be angry with her, even now?'"_

Bonnie placed the worn copy of Charles Dickens _The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby _back exactly where and as she found it. She swallowed thickly and wondered but stopped her mind from going there as well.

Turning she entered Damon's bathroom and finally did one thing she kind of secretly always wanted to do. She stripped, started the shower, and then stood in heaven until the hot water began to run cold.

In the shower she allowed her tears to flow as she scrubbed her skin, dug the dirt from under her nail beds, and washed her hair. Her fingers unconsciously grazed the area where she had been shot with an arrow.

Wrapped in a fluffy towel, Bonnie dried her hair and then had to deal with the loneliness again.

It was heavy like a weight pressing uncomfortably on her entire body.

Wiping her nose, Bonnie began to move. She raced around trying to find a piece of paper and something to write with. When she located the items she sat down in front of the fireplace and started to compose a message.

This probably wouldn't work but she had to try nonetheless.

Her hand moved faster than the words came to her. And once she read over the missive a million times, Bonnie crumbled it and then started reciting the incantation. She thought of home, the exact day and year it should be in…

Bonnie stopped once she realized that the magic-free bubble over Mystic Falls was still in place. She had no idea if Elena and Caroline had decided to continue their studies at Whitmore or not.

But then it came to her. Her shrine. If it was still there and if anyone went there hopefully they'd see it, but she had written the note for one person and one person only.

Licking her lips, hope renewed, Bonnie closed her eyes and started whispering Latin holding the balled note in the center of her hand.

She sensed it catching on fire and when her hand felt empty, Bonnie's eyes opened and she allowed herself to smile.

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><p><strong>15 Days later…<strong>

Feeling guilt was one thing but doing something to alleviate that guilt became quite another. His feet pounded the earth. Awolnation's _Burn it Down _belted through his earbuds and propelled him through the wooded area.

He had been running since last night, bleeding into the morning. Time moving forward instead of the same day repeating was something he had to get readjusted to, but regardless he still felt stuck.

Damon Salvatore had never wasted so much of his life thinking about time, but it was all he could think about right now. How much time kept slipping away and most importantly through his fingers. How many hours were wasted looking for a resolution that more than likely didn't even exist.

The guilt, _his _guilt morphed into anger. Anger at himself for not doing more to make sure Bonnie came with him. Anger for not just snapping Kai's fucking neck. He was a vampire and had a good twenty pounds of muscle on the little jam-eating wimp, and yet he struggled as if he were a wet noodle?

He talked about what a piss poor excuse of a vampire Stefan could be from time-to-time, but Damon knew he had made some bonehead decisions as well. Failing Bonnie was an example of that.

But what could he do about it?

Damon had taken up running because the guilt became too much and staying still was impossible. Being around the others and their unasked questions only served as a constant reminder of his last minute with Bonnie.

The smile on her face when she said he'd make it. The tears in her eyes. Her "not really" comment after he made a lame joke about her wishing she could be there with a billion other people besides him. The sincerity of her admission did things to his insides that surprised the hell out of him, and he could do nothing more than smile like a total nerd.

It haunted him day and night.

Damon was unquestionably grateful to be back in the here and now, but a huge piece of him was missing. A piece the returned vampire had no clue had become so important to him until he could no longer stare her straight in the eye.

How had the little witch burrowed her way under his skin _with _him looking at her everyday, all day, for four months straight?

At first Damon tried to play it off. Tried to go with the flow that he was back with his brother and the woman he loved who—plot twist had her memories of him erased, hidden so she could move on and stop eating people in her grief.

Damon, at first, had been pissed but then an unexpected rush of relief filled him that Elena only viewed him as Stefan's older, homicidal brother, and not the man of her dreams, her soul mate. It meant he could dedicate his time focused on the crisis at hand.

Getting Bonnie back.

He had taken over the investigation that had been launched by Stefan, Enzo, Caroline, and Alaric. The dead ends they came to where the ones Damon was determined to breakthrough.

Unfortunately, the rest of the world hadn't been informed that telling him 'no' wasn't an acceptable option.

His trip to Oregon had been a bust. His fire walk through New Orleans gleamed nothing. His sweet talking in Druid territory in Canada left him dateless in the answer department.

No one could tell him anything. Or so they claimed.

Damon had tried looking for the inventor of the ascendant, and right now he was waiting impatiently to hear back from his point of contact.

It would have been wonderful if he had an eidetic memory and could build the stupid thing himself, but he always had the attention span of a goldfish.

He was making the loop to go back to his temporary residence right on the outskirts of the magic-free zone of Mystic Falls when Damon saw a flicker of light out his peripheral.

Slowing his speed he changed trajectory and began to head in the general direction. If there were campers afoot he could use a little snack.

This area, he knew it intimately and knew what was here. The muscles in the back of his neck bunched tightly, but Damon ignored that as he came closer to that tree stump where Bonnie's memorial had been held.

He had honestly forgotten all about it because even back then he refused to accept her being gone. Dead. What irked him was that her funeral didn't even end up being about her. Bonnie had yet again shifted the focus off herself and made it about her friends. He really should have had a stern talk with her about being a little more selfish, and a little less Kamikaze when it came to looking out for others.

What had he done in their four months together instead? Mocked her, belittled her. Made cracks about her abilities though he had firsthand knowledge of just how powerful Bonnie Bennett was. Made engine noises to block out the sound of her voice though he'd gladly murder just to hear that voice again.

Damon arrived at the tree stump where mementos of Bonnie had been left behind. They were still there, not her grimoire though. He cocked his head to the side almost like a bird because there was a balled up piece of paper in the collection. Had someone mistaken this for a garbage can?

Anger swell in his chest at the disrespect, and Damon snatched up the paper ready to rip it to shreds, but then he caught a distinct smell wafting from it.

His eyes blinked rapidly and he held the paper closer to his nose and sniffed it.

Honeysuckle and sandalwood. Bonnie.

Damon unfurled the paper and his eyes bulged as he read the words disbelieving this were even _remotely _possible.

"_If you're reading this it means it worked. Remember when I said I can't wait to talk to someone else? I lied. Don't give up hope. I'm coming home. One day. Soon." _

Bonnie even dated it May 10th, 1994 as added proof this was real and that it was from her.

Damon couldn't feel his fingers or the ground underneath him. Bonnie was okay and she could communicate with him. He never ever lived on much hope before, but now it would be his greatest treasure.

TBC possibly…

**A/N: So I guess some suspending of belief for a second that Bonnie can send a message via magic to present day MF is possible, but hey she's a Bennett and in my book anything is possible. We don't know what Damon may do or what part he will play in trying to figure out a way to get Bonnie out of AU MF prison, but I can't just picture him sitting on his hands like CD seem to indicate in her latest interview. I won't rant. If you like please let me know. Nonetheless, thanks for reading! **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Four days later and I'm still salty, lol. But I'm in awe that so many love this story and really want to see it continued. Thank you so much for the reviews, for following, and adding to your list of faves! You guys spoil me, I spoil you in return. Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

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><p>It wasn't so easy trying to hide in plain sight when you were a sight to behold. Tall, dark, and gorgeous, but Damon Salvatore figured he was managing just fine. A few students lazily walked along the halls of the educational building. Whispering, lamenting, or being downright obnoxious giving him a wide berth as he stood, arms folded, back braced up against the wall. Waiting. Waiting for a particular door to open and a particular person to emerge.<p>

_Lockwood's intel better not be bullshit_, Damon thought as he cracked his knuckles, and relaxed his stance even more giving off the innocuous impression of boredom, which really wasn't all that hard to execute.

A few females here and there slowed their steps once seeing him, giving Damon a thorough once over from head to toe. Stripping him down to his skivvies. He didn't smile or grin or toss them a flirtatious look because right now his mind was on autopilot as it had been for the last three weeks.

Every single day, three times a day without fail Damon found himself traveling to that tree stump in the woods looking and waiting for another message from Bonnie to appear. He had heard nothing from her. Never received another sign or wonder about her prognosis. And knowing he wasn't the most optimistic of creatures, the silence was beginning to play tricks on his patience and sanity.

Damon felt both slipping through his fingers and he didn't know how to stop it. No matter what, he refused to think or believe anything bad had happened to Bonnie. That Kai in his nonchalant madness—that even creeped him the hell out, had hurt Bonnie. He just couldn't afford to think like that.

Luckily his musings were interrupted when the classroom door Damon had been staking out swung open, and an influx of students strolled out.

He kept his gaze locked squarely on its target and when he spotted who he had been waiting on, Damon began to move.

Liv was putting her tablet back into her bag. She stopped in the middle of the hall not because of that, but because she sensed a vampire approaching. Sighing in annoyance she wasn't terribly surprised that it was Damon Salvatore. She had been expecting him to corner her sooner or later to guilt trip her about doing a spell that could bring Bonnie back.

Liv lost count of how many times she's had this conversation with every single last one of Bonnie's friends. Her polite dismissals apparently hadn't been enough to convince anyone there was nothing to do. Now it was time to bring out the big guns and just tell them to fuck off and leave her alone. She didn't want nor need to get sucked up into their drama.

They may have been used to Bonnie being at their beck and call, and going out of her way to help them at an expense to herself, but she wasn't Bonnie. She felt bad for Bonnie, she did. But Liv didn't want to take her place or stand in her shoes.

Holding up her hand to block him from sight, Liv bit into her lip and snorted ruefully.

"Crazylocks," Damon greeted.

She dropped her hand and looked as disinterested as she could. "If you're here to ask me about a spell, sorry I can't help you."

Damon didn't saying anything. Once he spotted the instructor leaving the classroom figuring the coast was clear, he took Liv roughly by the arm and dragged her inside.

She resisted and zapped him with an electroshock that immediately caused him to drop his hold on her. But Damon straightened his spine, letting the rush of discomfort pass through him like acid reflux. He faced the witch and pulled his lips back from his teeth, showing fang.

"That wasn't very nice."

"Yeah, well I'm not in the mood."

"I really don't give a shit what mood you're in. I'm not here to ask you if there's a way to bring Bonnie back just for you to lie to my face. I've heard it all before and I'm not buying it. When there's a will, there's a way."

Liv blinked at Damon drolly and cocked her head to the side letting her blond spiral curls cover half of her face. "So what do you want?"

Damon removed a folded piece of paper from his back pocket and held it out to the witch. "I need you to send this to 1994."

The witch looked at the paper, then at Damon before looking at the paper again. She scoffed and switched her weight on her feet. "What makes you think I can do something like that?"

"Because Bonnie did," Damon replied simply. "She sent this to me," he removed another piece of paper from his inner jacket pocket and held out of Liv's reach. "If she can time travel a note so can you since you two are of the same ilk. Actually," Damon amended, "she's a Bennett and you're just _you," _he smiled mockingly.

"So you think insulting my abilities is going to get me to help you? And don't even think about threatening my brother."

"Liv," Damon said jovially. "I don't need to threaten your brother or you for that matter. Besides, I hooked Luke up with a date with some waiter he's been drooling over for the last month, so he and I are officially pals. You know, it's amazing what tequila can do to one's tongue and start letting a whole lot of deep dark secrets fly," his eyes darkened menacingly. "Don't you have a thing for a particular Wolfman, former Wolfman I should say? I wonder how he would take knowing…"

"All right!" Liv snatched the paper out of Damon's hands. "I'll give it a try but I'm not promising you anything."

They had gone back to Liv's tiny shoebox apartment. Damon had given her the address of the boardinghouse and told her to focus specifically on the date May 10th, 1994. He stood back, kept silent, and watched as the witch sat in the middle of her living slash bedroom while candles burned.

Liv held the note in the palm of her hand, closed her eyes, and began reciting the incantation.

Her voice was guttural like it was coated in phlegm and the imagery alone caused Damon to grimace. Her way of performing a spell far differed from Bonnie's who made it seem like a full body experience. The way her voice lowered in octave and the complicated words spilled from her mouth like fingers dripping with honey. Wind would blow her mahogany locks across her heart shaped face as she literally poured her soul into her magic.

It never occurred to Damon that after watching Bonnie perform a spell he would hear a very faint echo of her voice in his head for a couple of hours. He had sort of ignored it because there were far too many other things he needed to do at that time. Plus, he never liked to give stuff like that too much attention.

Damon kept his azure irises locked on Liv to make sure she wasn't faking it. Since returning he had taken a crash course on Latin and was a little more familiar with the language than he had been in the past. So the words she was saying were legit. However, that didn't guarantee she was actually putting any real effort into it.

Again, this made him think of another nuance when it came to Bonnie and magic. Sad he could only recognize these things now that they were separated. But this was something else he had overlooked in favor of remaining objective. Bonnie's magic had a particular smell and if he wanted to be real, it also had a taste. Not anything distinctive or strong like cayenne pepper but more like dew.

Twice her sweet blood had coated his tongue, once by force and the other time willingly when Bonnie linked him, Stefan, and Klaus to her in order to pull off the desiccation spell. Bonnie's blood was powerful and had a kick, and he could admit to sneakily wanting to taste it again while they had been sequestered away since the scent permeated every single room she entered.

He had wasted a lot of time being irritated with Bonnie. Primarily the reasons for his irritation had more to do with the fact for as annoying she could be, she was a distraction. A temptation and he had to keep her in a very specific block he created within his mind.

Bonne's smell was intoxicating and made him thirsty. If he had acted on that thirst…he changed his thought pattern.

Damon wasn't really scenting anything from Liv other than the fact she _really_ needed to get rid of that Chinese takeout in her fridge.

He stood up a bit straighter as the note began to kindle and then ignited. Hope quickened in his chest, but then vanished the second the flames went out but the note still remained in the center of Liv's hand.

She slowly peeled open her eyes and didn't look disappointed in the least. More like vindicated she had proven what a true hack she was when it came to pulling off what Bonnie had so easily done.

"See, I told you I wouldn't be able to do it," Liv got to her feet and walked over to Damon. She handed the missive out to him and he quickly snatched it from her fingers. "She's a Bennett. I'm not, like you said. I understand why you're trying so hard to get her back. Guilt is a great motivator for a lot of things."

Damon's eye narrowed but he didn't comment. Liv didn't know him _or _what he was feeling though she was right on the money. Guilt played a small part, but that wasn't the explicit reason he was exhausting every lead and reading every book on time travel and the occult beginning with the last page and working back to the first.

Nor was he going to spill his guts out to her. She just needed to do her part and keep her little observations to herself.

"Thanks for nothing," he chided and headed toward the door.

"When are you going to let the others know what really happened, Damon?"

He paused and faced the witch. Besides her rack, she wasn't much to look at in Damon's opinion. But the sleepy eyes, the practiced pout, and her 'I don't give a shit' attitude he figured she thought worked well in her favor. Added to her allure of being a witch.

"The device…the ascendant it would have worked for the both of you, not just one. Despite what you told the others…Bonnie sacrificed herself for you to come home. Didn't she?"

She was perceptive to Damon's annoyance. He twisted the doorknob and showed himself out.

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><p>For two days Bonnie hadn't stepped foot outside of the boardinghouse. Or left Damon's room much. Only to forage for food that was pretty much it. Kai was still on the loose and she had expected him to pop up demanding her head on a spike, but he never showed.<p>

A mental and psychological test of wills was now taking place in which Bonnie refused to play along, but she was astute enough to know she didn't have a choice. The game begun from the moment she sent that axe flying into his chest and he got her back with an arrow.

She thought tirelessly of that day. Of how she reached the conclusion that Kai wasn't needed after all since he didn't know the spell on how to make the ascendant work. That it once again boiled down to being a Bennett.

The swiftness of her actions surprised her and had shocked the hell out of Damon, which that kind of threw Bonnie off. He was typically the one to kill first and ask questions later. The double pat he gave to her shoulder didn't make her feel bad for the executive decision she made. In fact, it secretly tickled Bonnie that she was able to astonish Damon. Nick naming and cold-blooded murder were his things.

She had shifted the dynamic between them again. And maybe for the first time, Damon was seeing how his actions usually played out through someone else's eyes.

Kai would have been Bonnie's first murder, but this was his prison. Death would have been merciful; and the witches he betrayed and who put him there had figured that out, and made it impossible for him to stay dead after taking his life, or having it being taken from him.

Bonnie wasn't sure she could mentally handle killing this guy every single time their paths crossed as she tried to figure out another way to get back home. The protection ward around the boardinghouse seemed to be holding thus far, but she knew it wouldn't be long before Kai came sniffing around ready to extract revenge since the two of them wouldn't be going anywhere for a while.

Hopefully Damon got her message and was doing what he could to help her.

Bonnie sat on the floor in her impromptu command central. She had turned Damon's bedroom into her war room. For reasons she dare not examine too closely, Bonnie could feel his presence the strongest here although her mind knew he was gone. It helped to ease the loneliness, combat it, keep it at bay though going to sleep at night proved difficult because she was just so used to him being around.

Bonnie unconsciously massaged the center of her chest feeling pressure there that usually flared up when she thought about Damon.

Staying active is what she pushed herself to do. So long as she was toiling for answers she could stave off depression.

Bonnie was thankful the in-house library was stocked with a plethora of books including the entire Encyclopedia Britannica—although it was the 1994 edition. Still it provided the info she needed for the time she was in. The Internet was out so this would have to make due.

With a pencil lodged between her teeth, Bonnie flipped through the pages of the newspaper dissecting every single word, looking up definitions in the off chance a spell might be coded in the paper. She had searched through every room looking for crystals, anything she could use to harness energy and make a talisman since the Salvatore's were such hoarders.

Bonnie hadn't come across anything yet.

What she needed to do, really, was go back to the cave and collect the ascendant. That is, if Kai hadn't already gotten to it and was working on repairing it, bearing in mind it was salvageable.

He would come marching back to the boardinghouse if Bonnie's speculation turned out to be correct. When he came she'd have to be ready for him.

Too bad she didn't know anything about booby-trapping because she would certainly exercise her non-existent MacGyver skills, and make a bomb out of duct tape and a toilet brush.

Bonnie scribbled, took meticulous notes whenever a word or phrase jumped out at her. Then she cross referenced those words to spells in the grimoire. So far…she had a sentence.

Something crashed into the window causing Bonnie to shriek. The pencil fell out of her mouth and rolled on the floor. She spun to face the window and rose fluidly to her feet.

The lights went out, plunging the room, the entire house into darkness.

Great, Kai cut the power.

"OH BONNIE! TIME TO COME OUT TO PLAY!"

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><p>Elena Gilbert didn't really know what to make of the sight in front of her. She watched from the doorway as Damon, pencil lodged between his teeth, flipped the pages in one book, speed reading before discarding it and picking up another. The walls, the floors, the desk, and his bed were flooded with maps, symbol drawings, hastily written notes mapping out a network of theories that may gleam some answers into finding a way to bring Bonnie home.<p>

Seeing him for the first time had been…weird. Elena remembered Damon but what she remembered wasn't pleasant, and it kind of warred with his aesthetics that someone so physically striking could be such a cruel individual.

However, despite that she supposedly fell in love with him. Elena had only been brave enough to read a couple of passages in her journal describing her relationship with Damon. Bearing witness to him exhaust himself to such levels for a person she thought he hated confused her greatly. Yet it also validated one of her written reasons in how she could be with him.

It was almost like watching herself in a movie while she read her pre-compulsion thought patters concerning Damon. Now she could understand better why so many had been against her relationship with the elder Salvatore right from the very start. Him being Stefan's brother, notwithstanding. It was because at some point Elena lost herself while falling in love with him. Her love had clouded and skewered her perception of Damon—reality leading her to ignore problematic red flags.

But the Damon she remembered didn't match the one before her now. Elena didn't believe Damon's urgency to get Bonnie back was purely about reuniting her with her friends, or because she deserved to be alive. Which she did more than anyone. No, Elena suspected Damon's reasons went much deeper though he may not be aware of them. It was plainly written on the hard lines around his mouth that the longer it took to find a solution, whatever changes he underwent for the positive may be lost, and without Bonnie he may fall apart.

That just made her heart swell that the whole time she thought Bonnie was dead, she had been alive and being herself, and inspiring someone like Damon to change. Elena realized a little too late that she had neglected her friendships, especially the one with Bonnie who sacrificed so much for her, and that made Elena hang her head in shame.

"Hey," she said breaking into his concentration.

Damon's head snapped up, brow furrowed. He hadn't even realized she had been standing there the whole time. "Hey," he mumbled around the pencil still in his mouth.

"Found anything useful?"

Damon removed the pencil and blew out a breath. "Just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo with hardly any scientific proof to back it up. Not like science was a hundred percent responsible for my return or even my existence," he roughly scratched his growing beard. Damon hadn't shaved in a couple of days. Not since the spell to send that note to Bonnie failed.

Elena informed him, "Stefan and Alaric are going back to the coven…the Gemini coven in Oregon to try again."

Damon said nothing but his scrunched brow said it all. "A waste of time. They aren't going to give us anything useful to go on considering why they sent that little bastard packing in the first place."

Brown eyes studied him carefully. "You're really worried about Bonnie aren't you? This guy must be bad news if you're this…agitated."

Elena's words brought Damon up short. Since his return they hadn't really seen each other, or spoken about anything of importance outside of Bonnie. For a split second he wondered what she thought of all this and then decided he didn't care. Elena took the easy way out, had her memories of him erased instead of putting on her big girl drawers and dealing with her grief like a typical person would.

So therefore, in Damon's mind, he didn't owe the doppelganger any explanations since she couldn't afford the courtesy of remembering at least the good times between them. So much for a love that consumes.

"I've been studying geological events and one is coming up."

"What is?" Elena sighed knowing it would be a long shot in him opening up because of the decision she made.

She moved closer while Damon unearthed something buried at the bottom of an alarmingly growing pile on his temporary bed.

He had taken up Stefan's offer to move into his home in Savannah.

"It's called a syzygy…a lunar eclipse. Bonnie needed an eclipse in order for the ascendant to work. Since I've yet to hear from my contact about the location of another one, I'm thinking a witch may be able to use the alignment of the sun, moon, and earth to open up a doorway. If I have something of Bonnie's from the time she's in to lead me there and hopefully lead _us_ out, it may work."

A divot formed between Elena's eyebrows. So Damon meant to do this alone? She sensed some benign part of her should have been bothered by Damon doing this on his own—without her but she found herself being more curious than anything else.

"Only problem with that," Elena rasped, "all of Bonnie's belongings she might have kept from 1994 are in Mystic Falls of which none of us can enter."

Damon had something. The note. From Bonnie. But he wasn't sure if he could part with it especially with his time travel theory being circumstantial at best. Impossible at worst.

"I may have something," the elder Salvatore reluctantly disclosed. "I just hope…if this works and I get there…it's not too late."

* * *

><p>Kai had been demolishing the house—trying to since the ward thankfully thwarted his efforts, throwing whatever his hands landed on since lunch, and Bonnie was growing sick of it.<p>

He couldn't take the hint. He wasn't getting in and she wasn't coming out.

"I have the ascendant, Bonnie," he singsong. "Every single little nut and bolt, pulley and axel. If we work together _nicely _with promises not to maul each other to death or simply maul one another's clothes off,"—Bonnie pictured his sinister grin—"we can get it repaired and give it the old college try once more. What do you say? Help this little Norman Bates go home. And you won't have to worry about me peeling the skin off Damon's skeleton if our paths should cross."

Bonnie ignored him.

"This ward isn't going to hold forever. And you're going to have to leave to get provisions and no I'm not talking about jam or pancakes. So I'll be out here. Right under this window signing you to sleep, and trust me, my melodies aren't filled with jumping sheep. More like emaciated witches dangling from trees by the ankle. I considered doing that to my mother once."

Bonnie grabbed Miss Cuddles, grabbed Damon's copy of _The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby,_ the grimoire, and took the steps two at a time to the foyer. She flung open the front door and waited for Kai to walk around to the front of the house.

He appeared looking sly. "I knew you'd come around eventually and see things my way. Plus I see you're all packed and ready to go," he tried to enter the house but bounced off the impenetrable and invisible shield.

"Where's the ascendant?"

"Somewhere safe."

Bonnie nodded. "Then I suggest you bring it tomorrow. And just a reminder that I am not to be played with…_incendia."_

Flames started at Kai's feet and traveled upward. Bonnie flashed him a smile and pushed the door closed using her telekinesis.

"What do you say, Miss Cuddles," she addressed the bear amid Kai's screams, "chili tonight?"

* * *

><p>Damon rubbed his tired and bloodshot eyes as he sat on Stefan's porch. Tonight had been a bust. He needed to surround himself with a new group of people who could go from Monday to Tuesday without being kidnapped or having their neck snapped. Caroline and Ivy had gotten into some trouble since the newbie vampire had yet to learn to control herself. Damon thought Caroline was a useless immortal, but no that honor now belonged to Stefan's…whatever.<p>

Just as he thought of his brother, Stefan joined him on the porch handing him a glass filled with bourbon.

"Thanks," Damon took a sip.

Stefan sat down next to Damon and gave him a once over taking in his disheveled appearance. Damon didn't even look this wrecked after discovering the truth about Katherine, or when they were defying the laws of nature to keep Elena from Klaus. He never let himself go even when the world was crumbling around his feet. To think all of this was happening because of Bonnie?

What exactly went down between those two?

Damon sensed that Stefan wanted to tell him that if he needed to talk he was there. He appreciated the unspoken offer, but he wasn't quite sure where to begin.

He stretched out his left hand and examined his day walking ring. A corner of Damon's mouth lifted in a rueful smile.

"She tried to take this from me," he said.

"Who did?" Stefan questioned.

"Bonnie. We were on our hundredth grocery shopping trip and she thought she saw someone," his tone was flippant but the expression on Damon's face was reflective. "I thought she was imagining things because she wanted to get out of that place so badly, but when I saw movement too…I was willing to play along.

"It had been a tarp on the back of a truck and that little spark of hope I had that we might not be totally alone because if we weren't alone, and someone else was there then there might be a way for us to get out after all. Just like that," Damon snapped his fingers, "I was back in my own little cell in hell, and Bonnie said, 'Give me your ring.' I just looked at her like she was crazy.

"She made a grab for my hand and tried to pry it off, and went into this speech about me just ending it since I didn't have any hope left. She railed about how my lack of hope was ruining hers and she didn't need it because my pessimism wasn't helping. So if I was done…be done."

Stefan swallowed picturing that scene in his head. Imaging things from Damon and Bonnie's point of view. "Clearly you decided not to. So why didn't you?"

Damon turned to face his brother. "If I ended it…who would she have? I couldn't…I couldn't leave her," he got up and traipsed back into the house but not without Stefan hearing, "and it ended up happening anyways."

Chapter end.

**A/N: So how do we likey? Let me know and thank you so much for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Day six and guess what? Still salty. Thank you loves for the tremendous reviews and outpouring of support for this story! XOXO. I think I may have 2-3 chapters left before I'm wrapping this up since some of the subject matter I plan to cover in another ongoing story I'm writing at the moment may segue into this, and certainly don't want to repeat story lines or conversations. But thank you once again for adding to your lists, following, and of course reviewing!**

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith/CW Network. No copyright infringement is intended.

* * *

><p><strong>Right outside of Mystic Falls<strong>

If death was supposed to inflict the most fear, why then was it treated more like an escape from reality? If banishment from life was the quickest way to turn an enemy into an ally, and an ally into an enemy—why wasn't it handled with sacredness?

Was death final or simply the beginning of a new existence? If he thought long and hard about this, everything to some degree or another was immortal. People lived on through their descendants. Even the animals and plants of the world spread their seeds around making photocopies of themselves that continue on throughout the ages.

Doling out death had been his occupation, and something he thoroughly enjoyed, and committed as much as he could. He did it for blood, he did it for love; he did it simply because he wanted to. There wasn't always a philosophical reason to explain his methods. They were messy, created strife, yet saw results.

So far there was only one name on his hit list. Kai.

Damon walked back and forth flicking his eyes every so often at the dank walls of the Salvatore crypt. He hated coming here because it brought up too many unpleasant memories of the past.

He had become a predator thanks to vampire blood and a gunshot wound to the chest. A century and a half later he could still hear the boom of his father's musket. Smell the gunpowder, felt the impact of the round, metal bullet striking him and imbedding into his lung.

Damon had been unsure how long it may have taken him to die on that dirt road, but death hadn't been instant. He been rendered paralyzed and vaguely cognizant of what was happening.

And just as fast as total numbness engulfed him it was rapidly replaced with a foreign substance that was the equivalent of lead. His eyes popped open and he was staring at a blue sky.

A heavy silver ring had been placed on his finger. A silver ring inlaid with a large oval shaped lapis lazuli stone. Having spent time with Katherine and Emily by extension Damon knew what this ring symbolized.

A ring Bonnie tried to strip him of. Tried to get him to end it.

Where did vampires go once they were killed? He had an answer now. Beforehand, Damon had stopped believing in stories about heaven the day his mother died. The only alternative—he had been taught—was hell in which his life became one hilariously pathetic example of it.

He walked the earth unable to fill a void. A void which became a chasm that only grew deeper, darker, deadlier, and messier with time.

"_The difference between you and Kai…you feel remorse. There's hope for you."_

For the first time it clicked why those he tried to push away refused to give up on him. For the first time Damon felt worth the effort. It was one conversation with a witch who easily peeled back his layers and arrived at a conclusion that didn't pay homage to status quo. At that second Damon knew he didn't have to continue living as if he were damned. He had been granted another dispensation, another chance to make things right; only he wasn't quite sure where to start.

Initially, he had to start with ground zero—himself. Then Stefan. First though, he had to get Bonnie back.

His phone started ringing drawing him out of his reverie. Damon dug it out of his pocket and answered despite not recognizing the number. "Yeah?"

"Damon, I presume," came a female voice the vampire was unfamiliar with.

"Who wants to know?"

"Someone who can help you with a very specific request of yours you made to one of my witches in the French Quarter."

Damon's grip tightened on his phone. "Who is this?"

"How fast can you get to the witch mansion in Mystic Falls?"

"Is that a trick question? If I step one foot inside Mystic Falls that's it for me. So why don't we cut the shit and tell me who you are?"

A sigh tickled Damon's eardrum. "Someone who owes Bonnie a great debt. There's something hanging on the fence right outside of the crypt you're currently standing in. Wear it and get to the witch mansion as fast as you can, Damon. You're going to have to use something you have so little of…faith."

The line was disconnected. Inhaling roughly, Damon strolled outside of the crypt and sure enough there was a pendant necklace of some sort hanging from one of the posts in the wrought iron fence. Damon put the necklace on. The weight of it alone…he could feel something otherworldly beaming from the charm.

Deciding he could reach the witch mansion faster on foot, Damon broke the sound barrier and arrived at the place in record time. However, he was afraid to take one step closer because he was still technically outside of the magic-free bubble surrounding Mystic Falls.

Licking his lips, Damon took that leap of faith and crossed into unsanctioned territory. He waited a moment to see if his skin would start to fry. So far nothing was happening to him.

Taking another step, a jolt went through Damon, and he thought, _this was it_.

Things were off like an overexposed picture. This place had become barren once the witches decided to move on to greener pastures, but there was a subtle vibration under his feet that Damon had never experienced before in all the times he had come here. He didn't know what it meant. If he should be weary, cautious.

The earth was alive and singing if he had to describe it. No, not singing but chanting. An electrified hum that was more befitting a church ceremony. It made his gums itch and his fangs almost spontaneously burst from their confines. The feeling rolled ashore like mist and disappeared like smoke.

"Hello!" Damon shouted. He didn't see the woman he spoke to on the phone, couldn't even smell her. _You idiot this is probably a trap_ he thought as he took a few steps closer to the house.

There wasn't a pebble of light visible streaming from inside the mansion; and when he augmented his hearing, Damon couldn't even discern a single floorboard creaking.

A cold feeling like he was about to be surprised from the back swept past him. Damon spun around, but nothing was there apart from the empty lot.

The front door of the house blew open causing Damon to leap backward. A black mist spiraled and rolled from the dark depths of the residence, and Damon was ready to bolt for the hills, but he was ensnared around the ankle, pulled and landed with a harsh thud on his back. His teeth split his lip, sliced the inside of his cheek. He tasted blood.

Before he could mutter a single curse he was pulled across the ground, up the steps, the back of his head thudding against each one, and snatched into darkness. The door was slammed shut after his entry.

"Great," he muttered miserably.

**B||D**

The smell of unscented wax clogged his airways. Humming buzzed in his head, the sound of it driving him mad but keeping him conscious. Damon heard something dripping but that paled to the singeing of his flesh. Manacles drenched in vervain had been shackled to his wrists stretching his arms until he was sure his shoulders would pop out of their sockets. He winced and the coppery scent of blood seemed to be everywhere which made him ravenously hungry but also unfathomably nauseous.

Approaching footsteps caught his ear and Damon lifted his head just in time to see a woman with dark toffee skin, long wavy black hair peppered with gray, slanted dark brown eyes, and an unsmiling face join him in the basement.

Everything about her read witch but Damon had no clue who she was or how she knew Bonnie. In the last three years of knowing Bonnie they practically shared the same acquaintances. So who was this chick?

The woman assessed Damon from head to toe and back again.

He pulled on his restraints. "Is this really necessary?"

"Just a precaution," she answered and waved her hand in the air, releasing the manacles around the vampire's wrists.

Damon's arms dropped and he rubbed the lingering sting of vervain off his skin, gritting his teeth. Glowering, he demanded, "Who are you?"

"Lenore and that's all you need to know."

"What debt do _you _owe Bonnie?"

Lenore smiled crookedly. "I see you're as bullheaded as my sons."

That reference earned a peculiar look from the vampire. "I took a leap of faith in coming here unsure if I would be lit on fire once crossing into no-vampire land, and I'm entrusting you with something that could end horribly, not only for me but someone I…for someone close to me. So the _least _you can do is give me some kind of reassurance you're not just yanking my chain to amuse yourself."

The floorboards cracked under Lenore's feet as she drew closer to Damon. "I am, after all, the author of everything that has gone awry," Lenore smiled guilelessly. "You don't know this face. Neither does Bonnie, but you know this name…Esther."

Damon's eyes widened, "As in Mama Original?"

"More or less."

He cleared his throat and decided not to dwell on Esther's new look. Plus, he wasn't a novice in witnessing witches inhabiting the bodies of other witches, and he didn't care. So long as she had the wherewithal to bring Bonnie back, she could wear whatever disguise suited her fancy. However, his trust level plummeted to the ninth circle of hell.

"Right," Damon said. "Like I explained to one of the witches from the Quarter, Bonnie is trapped in 1994 with a coven murdering lunatic…"

Esther-Lenore nodded, "Malachi…killed his brothers and sisters, absorbs powers but only temporarily. Everyone knows about him. And Bonnie is trapped there with him?"

"Yes. What I don't understand is why her Grams would put her in a place where she knows someone crazier than me exists."

"Because of the device. The ascendant. I believe Sheila thought it possible for Bonnie to get to it before Kai did and get herself out. Yet…here you stand."

Judgment hung in the air. Damon's chest expanded, but only to alleviate the ache that twisted his insides that once again he profited from something that had been intended for someone else. For Bonnie.

"Do you believe she's still alive?" Lenore questioned.

"Yes," Damon responded unequivocally. "She sent me a note telling me not to give up hope."

Lenore's…Esther's…dammit Damon didn't know what to call her, but her eyes shrank around the corners. "Bonnie, I could tell from first meeting her that she would be more powerful than any witch to exist because her spirit was so pure. She only wanted to do what was best for her friends, and it ended up costing her. Beautiful spirit, yet not so bright in how, when, but most importantly _who_ to apply her gifts to. Nevertheless, she has youth on her side, she'll learn."

"Is it at all possible for me to go back to 1994 and bring her home?" Damon cut to the heart of the matter. He didn't need a lecture about Bonnie because he knew who she was. Had spent months learning things about her whether he wanted the education or not.

"It may be possible. You should prepare yourself for failure just in case," Lenore suggested.

Shaking his head back and forth, Damon insisted, "That is not an option for me."

Lenore studied him drawing her own conclusions. "Come with me," she crooked two fingers at him.

They emptied out of the old witch mansion where a retinue of witches and warlocks, each of them wearing the same pendant as Damon were waiting.

Lenore expounded, "These are some of the best and most gifted the French Quarter has to offer. We plan to harness traveler magic to open up the doorway between this plane and the one housing Bonnie."

He turned to regard the witch standing on the porch with him, "I thought traveler magic trumped spirit magic?"

"It's a purer source of magic, but if you know the right way to handle it, it'll do your bidding regardless of the origins of the blood that flows through one's veins."

Lenore led to the way to the middle of the front lawn where a large symbol that appeared similar to the Ying-Yang sign had been carved into the earth.

"Stand in the center and hold this," she passed over a vial filled with various herbs, scrapings of precious metals diluted in a water based compound. "You'll need to crush this once you have Bonnie so that the both of you can return. We can keep the spell going for an hour before it starts to drain us, and if the hour is up, and you're not back…"

"We're stuck," Damon finished.

"Unfortunately. Good luck, Damon. Here's where you get to prove if you're worthy of having been chosen to be the Bennett's protector."

Judiciously holding off on commenting, Damon waited for the spell to begin. Torches he hadn't even noticed began igniting one by one as the witches and warlocks held their palms facing out at their sides.

He expected the symbol he was standing on to erupt in flames as well. However, when pale blue light began to shine from it and blasted from his feet to the sky that pretty much cancelled that assumption.

Picturing Bonnie's face, Damon pierced his eyes closed.

* * *

><p>The sound of maniacal singing meant the return of the derelict. Bonnie didn't rush off to the foyer right away. She was carefully funneling a deceptively sweet substance into a bottle of maple syrup, twisted the cap back on, and vigorously shook the contents. She expeditiously cleared off the surface of the kitchen island, and smoothed fly away hairs behind her pierced eyes.<p>

Walking through the corridor to the front door, Bonnie opened it and there on the welcome mat was a very pink Kai.

He had changed clothes, and was missing quite a few patches of hair on his scalp. One of his eyebrows had yet to grow back, and there was a nasty burn scar marring the right half of his face. A pick axe might not kill him or any of the other various means he tried to off himself. Fire may have proven to be the most effective at least in slowing down his regenerative ability. Peeling off layers on top of cracked, blistered skin couldn't have been pleasant.

Bonnie suppressed any wave of sympathy for Kai. "Do you have the ascendant?"

"Not going to at least ask how I slept last night?"

"I really don't care how you slept especially if your night wasn't spent in a tremendous amount of pain."

"You know," Kai wagged a finger at her, "I didn't peg you to be a sadist and even I can admit to being wrong. But a sociopath can sniff out another of its kind. Guess I needed to look beyond the tight jeans, short shorts, and braless tops to see that between you and Damon, he's actually the nice one."

"I'm nice enough to hold off in trying to kill you until after the ascendant has been repaired. So show me yours and I'll show you mine."

Kai grinned and then winced at the still healing muscles in his face pulling uncomfortably. "I like the way you think," he unzipped the book bag in his hand and tilted it so Bonnie could peek into its contents and he could peek down her shirt.

"Those are all the pieces?" Bonnie arched an eyebrow.

"Yes."

Snorting, Bonnie mumbled a few words lowering the shield, and then stepped aside.

Kai stretched one leg over the threshold, and when he didn't meet with an invisible wall of resistance his other leg followed. He swept into the boardinghouse.

Bonnie reached behind her, feeling for the cutthroat razor she found in Damon's shaving kit that she stored in her pocket for added protection.

Kai groaned as he lowered his weight to a couch cushion and tucked the back pack protectively next to him. "Ready to get home where you can continue to fall on your sword for your friends?"

Ignoring the obvious dig, Bonnie made a beeline for the kitchen, poured the syrup on a pile of pancakes and returned.

She stretched the food offering out to Kai. "Figured you might be hungry."

"Trying to assuage your guilt?" he greedily snatched the plate away and sliced through all three layers of griddled flour, vanilla extract, milk, eggs, and…poison.

Sitting gingerly across from Kai, Bonnie picked up the grimoire and casually flipped through the sepia pages. Occasionally she flickered her eyes at him as he ate ravenously. Bonnie did her best not to grimace.

"Wouldn't hurt if I had something to wash this down with," Kai talked with his mouthful.

Rolling her eyes, Bonnie retreated back into the kitchen and returned with a glass of water. She sat it down next to his almost empty plate and he wasted no time guzzling it down.

Once his last meal in this godforsaken place was digesting in his belly, Kai belched and grabbed his pack. "Ready to go?"

Bonnie stared at him questionably. "I thought we would repair the ascendant here?"

"Why? So you can trap me in the house? I don't think so. We're headed back to our lover's nest in the woods."

It didn't matter either way to Bonnie. Kai would be dead within an hour if she mixed the contents of that poison correctly. The recipe had been in the grimoire, however to make sure its taste went undetected that had been coded in the newspaper. And hopefully it was a poison that would kill him irrevocably.

Shouldering her own bag, Bonnie took one final look around the boardinghouse living room. In her reality she had spent her fair amount of time within the paneled walls, but actually living in the estate, in its own way had become home.

They drove in the truck Kai had painstakingly learned to hotwire since he didn't trust to ride in Damon's car unsure if Bonnie may have concealed weapons in the interior.

Together they walked down the bumpy path previously taken by her and Damon only this time the trek was made in blistering silence. She thought back to three days ago. How happy and carefree Damon seemed; he was damn near skipping. He had fondled her butt with his walking stick when talking about plans he had for Elena. Other than being annoyed, Bonnie certainly hadn't wanted to be used as an illustration point for what Damon had in mind.

Now that she was thinking about it, she couldn't help but wonder if Damon and Elena's reunion was at all what he had hoped. Bonnie hadn't even allowed herself to think about reuniting with Jeremy. She broke up with him over the phone and then disappeared into an alternate reality with the person she liked the least. Bonnie had always hated telling people goodbye, and assumed it would hurt less if she didn't have to see Jeremy's face while she broke his heart that there had never been any real way for her to survive.

Besides, Bonnie wanted to bring only the good memories of them with her into whatever came next if anything came after the destruction of the Other Side. Seeing the devastation on Jeremy's face undoubtedly would have killed her resolve. Made it that more difficult to go through the end alone, not to feel resentment; or that life was being unfairly cruel to her.

But she hadn't been alone.

She and Kai arrived at the cave opening. The coven slayer shrugged off his jacket, spreading it on the ground like a blanket where he proceeded to dump the pieces of the ascendant on top.

"Milady," he waved a hand for Bonnie to take a seat.

She sighed and lowered her body taking care to keep her distance from Kai.

Silently they began organizing the pieces into an assembly line according to size. This was going to be like trying to put a clock together without a manual.

"So…what exactly do you think you'll be going back to?" Kai asked with a deceptively inquisitive expression on his face. "From your many arguments with Damon you seemed more concerned about getting him home so he could screw some other chick. What was her name? Eliza or something?"

"This doesn't require the use of your mouth in any shape, way, or form. So I suggest you shut it."

Kai snapped his fingers. "I understand what your problem is now. You've _got_ to be sexually frustrated out the wazoo. Trust me, sister I understand and share in your pain. Would you believe me if I said I was a blushing virgin and your sexual tension with Damon made me uncomfortable…yet a little horny?"

Bonnie exhaled loudly and lamented. "You're worse than a sober Justin Beiber!"

"Considering I don't know who that is I will take it as an insult."

"Smart man," the witch mumbled under her breath and tried to fit pieces that looked like they should fit together—together.

Some pieces easily snapped into place whilst others took a little more elbow grease. Thirty minutes into their work, Bonnie's hands turned into pools of sweat. In spite of Kai making disparaging or lewd comments here and there, she could almost put him completely out of her mind and begin to focus on the next step of her strategy.

Their heads had drawn unconsciously closer as they snapped the final pieces of the ascendant into place.

"There," Kai announced. "I think that's it. It's fixed."

"We won't really know that until I try to use it," Bonnie informed, wiping her sweaty palms on her jeans.

She rose to her feet and peered down on Kai.

Confidence came with judicial planning. Knowing your worth, and applying the skills you honed to get the job done. It was about playing the other man against himself, making him believe he was the victor when really all along he was just the pawn.

Bonnie knew she could do this. She was just ready to get it over and done with.

Come hell or high water, she was getting out of this gotdamned prison and she wasn't looking back.

"Ready?" Kai asked and coughed.

"Absolutely," Bonnie telekinetically lifted the ascendant from his possession. "I'll just hold on to that," she tilted her neck to look up at the sky. The moon was moving into place, the eclipse would be happening very shortly.

Kai coughed, drawing Bonnie's attention. He coughed once more and kept coughing. He covered his mouth and when his hacking subsided, he pulled his hand away. It was speckled with blood.

Furious blue eyes scorched in Bonnie's direction who smiled.

"What did you do to me?"

Bonnie sang, "That girl is poison. Never trust a big butt and a smile," she grinned broadly.

"Fucking. Bitch," Kai enunciated and gave chase.

Bonnie turned, prepared to jump down into the cave, but Kai caught her and threw her down the dirt mound. The wind was knocked out of her, the ascendant went flying out of her hand. She quickly made a scramble for it, but Kai was on her back, arm around her throat. Choking her.

Her heart raced as she reached behind her, digging a hand into her pocket and extracting the razor. She sliced his forearm from elbow to wrist.

Kai roared and stumbled away from Bonnie. His face twisted in a malicious mask of fury and he balled his hand—his good hand into a fist ready to throw it. Yet Bonnie moved preternaturally faster, threw her hand out sending him careening sideways into a tree.

Collecting the ascendant and her bag, Bonnie ran back up the mound and sucked in a deep breath. She took the plunge and landed incorrectly on her feet. Her ankle shattered on impact.

Her screams of agony echoed off the cavernous walls, but Bonnie clutched the ascendant and pushed herself to a sitting position. Pain from her ankle shot up and lodged itself at the top of her cranium. Gritting her teeth and stifling screams, Bonnie endured it.

Head pounding, Bonnie mentally lacerated her hand and dribbled her blood on the small round crystal in the center of the mechanism.

_This thing better work even with me on my ass_, Bonnie groused and said the words she had spoken three days ago.

There was no reaction but a piece of the ascendant did fall off.

"Shit! No! Don't do this," Bonnie wheedled and tried to repair the ascendant with shaky fingers.

No matter how she tried to configure it, the piece wouldn't fit. The hope her ingenious plan filled her with began to bleed out of her in addition to the color in her face.

"Missing something?"

Gasping, Bonnie snapped her head up. Kai stood up right in front her holding something in his hand.

"I figured you'd try to play me some kind of way, Bonnie. That you agreed far too easily to work together and let me out of here. So I needed to come up with my own insurance policy."

He was on her in a nanosecond draining healing power out of the young woman. She screamed, groaned, and tried to twist away. Kai fed on her until the scars from the burns she inflicted were gone, the laceration on his arm sealed shut. To his dismay, he couldn't shake the poison from his system.

He could feel it. Necrosis taking over, but he refused to accept defeat.

When he let Bonnie go, she fell backwards staring up at the shaft of light.

Kai nudged her with his boot. "Get up. You still have your part to do."

A tear rolled from the corner of her eye. She was going to have to kill this asshole. Remove his heart from his chest, set it aflame, then dismember him. Could he come back from that? Could she do that to another human being though Kai was far from human and not have it affect her or give her nightmares? She didn't know, but was willing to take the risk.

"Get up!" Kai grabbed her by the shirt and hoisted Bonnie to her feet.

Her broken ankle made its presence known as pain burned through her nerves. It was like someone pulling on the roots of her hair, while taking a chainsaw to her bones.

None of it mattered. Slowly her eyes closed and opened owlishly.

Kai flicked his gaze between her lips and verdant irises filled with hatred and felt himself harden in his pants. Just as he thought: What the hell? Kiss her, he lowered his head and then air rushed out his mouth in a strangled sob.

Bonnie—poker face, slammed her hand in Kai's chest, breaking through his ribs, fingers worming around his heart.

He grabbed her wrist and chuckled tiredly as black bile poured from his mouth. Everything within him seemed to slow down, crawl at a snail's pace while his heart tried in vain to expand between Bonnie's fingers. He didn't think of home or revenge. Just irony. "Between us…who should the world fear the most in being released?"

A light from over his shoulder distracted her and then before she knew it the sound of a neck snapping filled her ears.

When Kai dropped to her feet his heart was in her hand. Bonnie stared at it puzzled, and then looked at the figure looming in her peripheral.

At first she was staring at a broad chest covered with a black T-shirt and a leather jacket thrown over it. Up her gaze trailed over a bobbing Adam's apple, grizzled chin, petal pink lips, aristocratic nose, and finding their home in the depths of a pair of cerulean orbs.

Bonnie breathed, "Damon," she smiled and almost collapsed out of sheer relief. But then she shook her head. "No, I'm hallucinating. The pain is messing with my brain. You're not real."

"If I wasn't real could I do this?" a hand cupped her face causing her to jerk slightly, but once she felt it caress her skin, Bonnie nuzzled into his touch.

Her eyes were wide open and glittering with unshed tears.

Damon wanted to say something witty but came up with nothing because the way Bonnie was staring at him was how he always wanted someone to look at him. That made the veins in his head pound, and he quickly averted his gaze.

"Let's get you out of here," he suggested.

Bonnie was pretty positive this was all in her head. Being temporarily drained of power, the blinding pain percolating in her skull, ribs, and ankle gave birth to a glorified fantasy.

Her feet cleared the ground and she was swung up into Damon's arms, her eyes on him the whole time.

"Bringing a souvenir with you?" he teased.

Bonnie remembered she was holding Kai's slimy heart. "Yes."

He crushed something in his hand and then…hot light consumed them.

The witch and vampire were moving without seemingly moving. Living a hundred lifetimes in one second.

Nausea dropped kicked her stomach, and Bonnie nearly vomited once the rush of movement subsided.

Something hard was underneath her and it wasn't just a cold slab of concrete. Hesitantly opening her eyes, Bonnie was greeted to the sight of barren dirt strewn walls, candelabras, and a stone bench. The air was musty with decay and earth but the stench was familiar.

Her body relaxed and her grip on Kai's heart loosened. It tumbled to the ground and the sight of it made her stomach roll, but she concentrated and sent it up into flames.

She was jostled and, craning her neck, Bonnie blinked rapidly as Damon stared down at her just as curiously and openly.

A nervous and slightly incredulous laugh fluttered past her lips. Her forehead touched his chest, and then she was crying. Heaving and sobbing in disbelief that she was out. That she was back. That she was free.

Chapter end.

**A/N: Bonnie is back, Bamon is reunited. What's going to happen next? Thanks for reading! **


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hey loves. I hope you're all still interested in reading this especially if you caught the last ten seconds of 6x07, and because I'm sure there are a ton of post 6x05 fics out there. But thank you for the reviews for last chapter, it really does mean the world to me. I really wanted to wrap this up in this update, but that just won't be possible because I still have far too much story to tell. Anywho, enjoy!**

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith/CW Network. No copyright infringement no intended.

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><p>Strong arms that were cradling her against a solid wall of chest lowered her to the ground. Pain raced from her ankle zigzagging across her nerves and made Bonnie cry out, and nearly crumple to the dirt strewn floor, but durable hands held her up.<p>

"What's wrong?"

The panic in Damon's voice was unmistakable and the sound of it inappropriately made Bonnie smile although she was in a tremendous amount of pain. This just reminded her of when she foolishly or bravely, depending on one's perception, challenged Kai to drain her of every last drop of her power and do the spell himself to return home. That had been excruciating, but nothing Bonnie couldn't handle, testing her limits. Testing Kai.

However, Damon's strained imploring for her to cut it out along with his restraint not to intervene, Bonnie assumed he'd be perfectly fine with her sacrificing herself again. It's what she had gotten increasingly good at. But that didn't turn out to be the case.

"My ankle," Bonnie wheezed. "It's broken."

Damon nearly bowled over in relief secretly thankful it wasn't something more serious like internal bleeding or a missing spleen.

Without question, Damon swept the injured witch up into his arms, crossed over to the stone bench where he sat down, and brought his wrist up into his mouth, shredding his skin with his razor sharp teeth.

"Do over," he held his bleeding wrist out to Bonnie who stared at it before flicking her gaze upward to look him in the eye.

"You'll do anything to get your blood into me, won't you?"

"Yep," he answered unabashedly and followed it up with a cinematic smile.

Rolling her eyes and huffing, Bonnie compliantly opened her mouth and Damon carefully placed his bleeding appendage between her top and bottom jaw.

Bonnie was cognizant on what to do with her tongue; made sure it didn't lap at Damon's skin, but that was impossible to avoid. His blood flowed, drop by drop, but she needed much more and had to use suction to really get the tap flowing properly.

It filled her mouth and she tried her best not to be grossed out so she kept healing in the forefront of her mind.

Unlike the last time where he saved her life right in this very crypt by doing his very thing, Bonnie had been unconscious. Now she was lucid and could remember every little detail, every little nuance tattooing this event into her memory.

Damon had a way of looking out for her even if he didn't want to. This was no different, but everything _was _different.

When he figured she had enough, Damon removed his wrist and then wiped away the excess that caked the corners of her mouth.

Her heart thumped and the sound made his ears twitch.

For several seconds they didn't say anything to each other. Their thoughts were on a super highway in gridlocked traffic. One thing was abundantly clear: they were both equally glad she was back though they wouldn't exactly say that out loud.

Damon cleared his throat, "Before this gets awkward," he propped Bonnie up into an upright position next to him on the bench.

She didn't want to pay too much mind to the fact she felt sort of bereft at the distance between them. Minute, though it was. Demurely, Bonnie folded her hands in her lap and looked at everything apart from Damon. Too many emotions were heightened and if this is what it felt like to transition into a vampire the birds could have it as far as Bonnie was concerned. Her head pounded, her skin warmed, the pain in her broken ankle receded to an annoying throb. She wanted a shower, something decent to eat, and a nice, clean bed.

More importantly she didn't want to move a single inch from this spot.

Damon wondered what Bonnie was thinking. He had expected her to harangue him with a bunch of questions that would cause him to snap, but her silence unnerved him.

He shifted to face her, staring at her profile.

Bonnie began to feel weighted down by Damon's gawking. She courageously made eye contact with him. "How did you make it back…to me?"

Glad she was being objective, the taut muscles in his shoulders relaxed. "I had help from some witches and warlocks from the French Quarter. They used traveler magic to open up a doorway for me to go back to 1994 and drag you kick and screaming into the twenty-first century," Damon grinned though it didn't exactly have his usual stamp of sinisterism.

Nodding, Bonnie decided to dissect that process and wrap her head around it later. The fact of the matter was she was back in the time she belonged in. She had benefitted from her fair share of loopholes—though they came at a price with massive consequences attached to them, but at some point they were sure to run out.

That thought made Bonnie grave. She pushed herself to her feet and hobbled a bit, but could walk on her own.

Damon watched her looking for any sign she might wilt like day old lettuce. He too stood and together he and Bonnie sauntered to the entrance of the crypt.

Bonnie blinked rapidly against the sunlight that filtered through the trees. She breathed in deeply and once more felt eternally grateful to be back, to be alive, to be whole. No more being a ghost. No more being the anchor. She had her birthright reinstated, blood rushing through her veins. However something felt like it was missing.

She spotted Damon hovering in her peripheral. "Thank you," Bonnie faced him. "Thank you for not giving up on me. Thank you for coming back for me," unshed tears welled in her eyes, but they didn't fall.

A muscle in Damon's jaw tightened. Bonnie was staring at him again in that way that made something hot fan through his stomach. No, it wasn't hard to see why Kai or any other guy would hit on Bonnie. There was a subtleness to her that made you look and linger and talk yourself out of approaching her thinking you weren't good enough. He blinked as if changing the channel on his thoughts.

However, Damon's hand grew a mind of its own, and of its own volition reached out and plucked a leaf from Bonnie's hair. He kept his eyes focused on that and not her.

"Well, you didn't leave me much of a choice. You sent me home packing without a souvenir," he growled playfully. Bonnie snorted. "While you were injured no less. I figured I could do better."

"So that's the reason you came back for me?" she tipped her head up. "Because you couldn't be one upped."

"Precisely," Damon blew the leaf away. He caught Bonnie smiling despite herself, and for some weird reason that made his chest puff out like he just delivered a baby.

Hell, he brought her back from another dimension that should have been reason enough for his head to swell to the size of Jupiter. Making Bonnie smile shouldn't top that.

Damon wandered off ready to get the hell out of this place.

"Did you tell anyone else about what you were doing?" Bonnie followed and looked around expecting the rest of her friends to show. But the cemetery grounds were empty and silent.

"No, because they would have slowed me down. They have a tendency to make things worse. Not better."

Bonnie said nothing in their defense because she agreed. Still, it would have been nice to see everyone. The last time they gathered here, she had taken one final look before disappearing back to the other side to await her depressing fate.

"It's been three days for me since we last saw each other," Bonnie said. "How long as it been for you?"

"Weeks," Damon muttered like there was a bad taste in his mouth. "How's your ankle?"

"It's almost fully healed."

"Hop on," he presented his back to Bonnie. "I didn't drive here."

Knowing she should say something smart, Bonnie bit her tongue and climbed aboard Damon's back. He shot forward without warning and Bonnie held on to him for dear life.

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><p>Esther!Lenore and her coven from New Orleans stopped the spell once they felt Damon had returned. Whether or not he returned with Bonnie would remain to be seen, but if he had may Bonnie not make the same mistakes she made in defying nature to keep her loved ones from dying. Nature had to take its course without mediation.<p>

The body jumping witch knew she was responsible for the limitations that were placed on sorcerers like Bonnie. All she wanted to do now was free those limits.

"Carlisle," Lenore called, "find out if my debt has been paid."

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><p>Now that she was back the most obvious place Damon thought to take Bonnie was to Whitmore. He had reached for his cell to let the rest of the gang know about her return, but Bonnie in a surprising move placed her hand on top of his, shaking her head.<p>

"Don't let them know. Not right now. I need…I need to take this all in first."

A brow lifted, "You sure? I thought you couldn't _wait _to have someone else to talk to?"

"Your biting sarcasm I've learned to ignore but also translate."

"Translate? Into what?"

"That's for me to know, and for you to…." Bonnie trailed off.

Damon grinned and then snuck Bonnie into Caroline and Elena's dorm room glad they weren't around.

He kept silent while the revamped witch walked around the room familiarizing herself, and seeing how not much changed. She picked up a photo frame featuring a picture of her standing in front of an ornate red gate, hands stuffed in a leather jacket that belonged to her dad she had found while cleaning out his closet.

A sad smile graced her face but her chin quivered. Memories she had buried under illusions instead of dealing with the truth of her resurrection the first time came flooding back. Like everything else, Bonnie learned to endure. Shoulder the burden and paint a happy picture that she was overjoyed about being a corporeal, tangible being and not on the fact she would experience the pain of every supernatural.

"I need a shower," she whispered mostly to herself.

"On that note I should probably go," Damon hitched his thumb in the direction of the door.

"No! Just give me a minute."

A dark eyebrow rose as Damon processed what Bonnie was pretty much saying without actually saying it. She wanted _him _to stick around while she showered. Naked. With only a door and a shower curtain separating them. Other than finding some old Playboy magazines in Stefan's room, he hadn't seen a naked woman in damn near five months. All right. Who was he to turn down a lady?

Making himself right at home, Damon observed as Bonnie rummaged through her friends things looking for clothing, and then she disappeared in the in-suite bathroom.

With nothing better to do and to make sure his mind didn't start building any fantasies concerning the witch, he too began to snoop around.

Damon began to wonder what he would do now. He was back. So was Bonnie who would probably jump feet first back into being the savior of her friends with little regard to her own life and safety. His lip curled unconsciously as he thought about her taking back up with that emo loser who had done nothing more productive in Bonnie's absence than drink, screw anything with low standards, and play video games.

Honestly, in Damon's humble opinion Jeremy sucked as a boyfriend. No, he wasn't so good at the boyfriend thing either, but the difference between him and Gilbert was, he wouldn't sit on his ass for months while his girlfriend rotted on the other side, and then not pick up his pinky toe to try to find a way to bring her back for the second time.

Why Bonnie remained loyal to the little punk defied belief. But love was a strange thing. It gave you hope, blinded you. Consequently, mismanaging it could leave you looking like a desperate fool who couldn't buy a clue with credit.

If he examined things too closely, Damon may start to question why he held on so tightly to Elena and she him. Though she didn't hold on for long considering she had her memories of him abolished so she could make it from one day to the next. The elder Salvatore didn't really know what to make of it. Take it as a compliment Elena couldn't function without him, or as an insult that she couldn't fight for her sanity the way he fought all those times in the past to keep her heart beating.

Then he had another thought. Bonnie hadn't really talked about Jeremy. When they weren't bantering about her lack of magic fingers, or she wasn't berating him for cheating at Monopoly, or even muttering nonsensically in her sleep, she never brought the twerp into conversation.

So what did that say about her love for Jeremy? Of course Damon never imagined Bonnie would gab about her relationship to him, and he certainly wasn't going to prod for details because one) he didn't give a shit and two) he didn't give a shit. The less he knew about their puppy love romance the better off he'd be.

Maybe Bonnie kept mum because her relationship was private and she and Damon weren't friends.

At least not when they first arrived in 1994 Mystic Falls.

What were they now?

The door swung open and Damon turned at the sound. Bonnie stood in the threshold, hair wet and curling, wrapped in a cerulean towel. Steam curled around her giving off the perfect illusion of her arriving from another world. Which was so very true in her case.

Her avocado irises held his but his eyes were too busy scanning her from top to bottom.

Clearing her throat, Bonnie strolled over to Caroline's dresser and picked up her deodorant. "Forgot this," she locked herself in the bathroom once more.

Damon released the breath he had been holding. It was official. He needed to get laid because seeing Judgy in a towel that came to her knees and didn't really expose any cleavage shouldn't have made blood rush to his dick.

But it did.

She reemerged ten minutes later attired in a blue pixie dress, feet bare. Hair a little less wet but still curling and emitting the fragrance of mangos and pineapple.

Damon's gums throbbed and his hunger flared, but he tempered it the best way he could. "Feeling better?"

Bonnie shrugged and her face fell in a flat line of seriousness. "What's the catch?"

Her question made Damon blink. "What catch?"

"The catch in me being brought back from the dead for the _second_ time. What's the catch?"

As far as the vampire knew, "There is no catch."

Bonnie sniffed in disbelief. While she showered she did a bit of thinking. This time around she didn't want to get caught up in the euphoria that her life could continue as if she hadn't missed a beat. This time she wanted to know what conditions had been set that governed her return, and how much they were going to suck for her.

"I would love to believe that, Damon, but given my history in either bringing someone back from the dead or coming back there's _always _a consequence. The balance has to be found and I'm the one who pays the price," Bonnie paced. "I bring someone back, I get cheated on. I come back and have to relive a supernatural being's death," she stopped abruptly and looked Damon squarely in the eye. "I can't go through another year of pain, Damon. I can't," her voice broke.

He took a step forward to embrace her, but Bonnie read his intentions and stepped backward. If he touched her she would crack. Shatter.

Damon knew without it she would break regardless. The only times he touched a woman was to either give her orgasmic pleasure or…end her life. So showing affection that didn't have the end goal of getting someone naked was a rare thing for Damon. He had been informed by Stefan after the whole Shane/Silas debacle that Bonnie didn't remember her time on the island, which meant she didn't remember the hug they shared.

Well, she would remember this one.

Bonnie's breathing became heavier. Each inhalation made her chest cave in a little more deeply. Her eyes closed automatically when Damon's fingers brushed over her arms and pulled her forward. Her bones were liquefied and Bonnie clutched Damon with the excuse of remaining on her feet and not becoming a puddle on the floor.

Her arms tightened around him, her hair tickled the bottom of his grizzled chin, and the thump of Bonnie's heart reaffirmed what Damon's senses already knew was fact.

"I can't make this promise to you, Bonnie, but I'm going to do it anyways. _Nothing _is going to hurt you."

"You don't know that, Damon."

"You're right, I don't but gotdamnit come on! How much more shit do you need to go through in order for the spirits or whoever to leave you the fuck alone? You've suffered enough, paid your just due. So if anyone wants to launch some consequences on anyone then they should launch it on me."

Bonnie sniffled, "You mean that?"

"For now," Damon replied glibly.

"So you really weren't posturing for Kai. You really _do _like me."

He couldn't see Bonnie's face but knew she looked vindicated and smug. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, shall we? I have an exceptionally high tolerance for you. There's a difference."

"But I'm pretty sure I _heard _you inform Kai that you liked me. And I quote, 'I like her'."

Inwardly Damon cursed. "You were emotional and were hearing things."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly _not_ it." Pulling away slightly, Bonnie stared up at Damon. "What's next? For us? We just go back to only communicating when you need me for something?"

Though the blue-eyed Salvatore could commend Bonnie for keeping her expression notably blank he could spot the apprehension in her gaze, but optimism that things between them wouldn't fall into its old pattern.

At the moment, Damon wasn't sure on what he wanted or where he wanted things to go. But he knew something had to change.

"What do you want?" he decided to cast the responsibility on the next phase in their…relationship on her.

Saying nothing, Bonnie just laid her head back on Damon's chest.

He could hear Blondie approaching and that should have been his signal to release Bonnie, but he held her just a bit tighter.

The grating sound of her whiny voice increased in volume and then the doorknob turned.

Caroline waltzed in, eyes in the process of rolling having caught a glimpse of Damon standing in the middle of her bedroom. Before she could cuss him out for violating the sanctity of her boudoir, she shouted into the phone:

"What did I tell you last night? That was all on you. When you feel like listening to me again then feel free to call me. Otherwise lose my number," she mashed down on the end button.

Bonnie pulled out of Damon's embrace and awkwardly looked over her shoulder. A smile forming on her face.

Shaking her head, Caroline stomped to her side of the room. "What are you doing here, Damon? Hey Bonnie," Caroline stripped out of her jean jacket, tossing it on the bed. She froze like a statue.

Caroline gasped. Her phone fell out of her hand and landed face first on the floor. The sensitive touchscreen shattering on impact made the only noise in the room.

"Please tell me that's not who I think it is? _Please_ tell me I got ahold of some bad blood and I'm hallucinating. If it's who I think it is I may scream, and if it's not who I think it is I may scream anyways."

Slowly, Caroline pivoted in her boots to take in the scene, get a good look to make absolutely certain her mind and perception of reality wasn't playing a cruel trick on her.

That really _was _Bonnie. Caroline's jaw plopped to her chest and then she vampire sped over to her friend, looking her over, up and down, all around before screaming.

Damon stuck a finger in his ear to make sure it wasn't bleeding.

"It really is you!" she pulled the smaller girl into her arms hugging Bonnie for dear life.

"Hey Care," Bonnie intoned since the breath was literally being squeezed out of her.

Brooding lines marred Damon's forehead. "Watch it there, Blondie. Unlike you, Bonnie actually needs the full use of her lungs and spine."

Caroline wanted to defiantly hold on to Bonnie for a little while longer, so she loosened her grip rocking her best friend back and forth, eyes turning misty.

"How is this possible?" Caroline sniffled in wonderment.

"Magic," Bonnie answered simply.

"I can't believe you're back," Caroline grinned widely. "I'm so tired of losing you, Bonnie."

Bonnie who was failing at keeping her tears at bay, pulled away, "I'm tired of being lost, too."

"Ohmygod!" Caroline exclaimed suddenly. "Does anyone else know that you're back?"

Bonnie shook her head realizing her reprieve was rapidly coming to an end. She would have to face the rest of her friends if Caroline got her way. For some strange reason panic settled over Bonnie's shoulders and she wanted to flee, but remained rooted to the spot knowing that a big reunion was unavoidable but one she needed.

Being alone with one person and then spending the final two weeks of her stint in a supernatural prison with a coven murdering loon, one would think Bonnie would literally be dying for a new social circle. However, she was surprised to find that staying low key was what she wanted most of all.

Caroline began muttering to herself on the impossibility of Bonnie being back, and basically plotting the rest of Bonnie's itinerary for the rest of eternity from the sounds of it.

She picked up her phone and let out an irritated huff once seeing the damage she inflicted on it. Spinning to face Damon, Caroline snapped her fingers. "Let me see your phone."

Damon first glanced at Bonnie who appeared pensive as she nibbled on her lips. Digging his phone out of his pocket he handed it over to Caroline who didn't waste a second before snatching it out of his hands.

"Who to call first," Caroline spoke more so to herself.

"Are you okay?" Damon mouthed to Bonnie.

She lifted her shoulders and tried to put a smile on her face, but she couldn't pull it off. Bonnie knew she should have a strong, burning desire to be reunited with her friends. Hell, it's what she killed for but currently she couldn't kick the feeling of wanting to run. Not necessarily to be alone. She just didn't want to be _here. _

"Everyone will be here within the hour. Jeremy much sooner than that," Caroline spun around to face Bonnie and noticed she was engaged in a silent stare down with Damon.

For a minute her gaze switched from one to the other, gears in her head turning. But Caroline shook off her own thoughts, and took Bonnie by the wrist.

The contact startled Bonnie who reacted instinctually. With a blast of power she sent Caroline hurtling into the adjacent wall.

"Shit!" Bonnie cried and hustled over to Caroline who landed with a loud whack on the floor. "I'm sorry."

"Jeeze, Bonnie," Caroline massaged her back and stared at her newly returned friend in shock. "Ohmygod, you have your magic back!"

Bonnie cast a weary glance at Damon who looked strangely amused. She shook her head and rolled her eyes at him which only made his smile broaden.

"You could say that," she helped Caroline to her feet.

"How did that happen?"

Again, Bonnie's gaze wandered over to Damon. "It's a story best left to tell when everyone gets here because I only feel like repeating it once."

Caroline nodded and then plastered a smile on her face. She could feel her tears starting up again. This time, instead of making sudden contact with Bonnie, she motioned for them to have a seat on her bed. She really wanted Damon to beat it so they could have a few moments alone, but already figured she'd be wasting her breath.

"I can't believe you're back, Bonnie, but I should have known. If _Damon _of all people could be returned then there was no way you wouldn't make it home, either. I can admit…things looked a little bleak."

"I know," Bonnie murmured. "With hope anything is possible."

"That's so true. Jeremy is probably going to spray his shorts when he sees you."

Damon's lip curled at the imagery. Color blotted the witch's cheeks yet Bonnie refrained from saying anything.

"Hey, look I think I'm going to cut out of here," Damon announced.

"Good," Caroline made a shooing motion with her hand.

"No, you don't have to leave," Bonnie implored.

"If he has somewhere else he much rather be, don't stop the man, Bon."

Bonnie ignored Caroline. But the moment was interrupted when the door opened, and of course the person they were just talking about stepped over the threshold.

Jeremy's dark brown eyes which had lost their animation lit up like a Christmas tree when they landed on Bonnie.

She was just as he remembered her and yet there was something different about her. Whether that change had anything to do with the preternatural sheen to her skin, the bright green color of her irises, or just the fact she was alive—period Jeremy couldn't say and it didn't matter.

The months he spent fucking around and literally fucking anything in sight so he wouldn't feel crippling sadness and guilt that his girlfriend who sacrificed so much for others no one had been able to make a sacrifice for her; that was still there consequentially. She broke up with him over the phone, but that was in the past now. He had spent too much time numbing his pain and anger when really he should have been properly mourning Bonnie.

But he would make it up to her. Make up for what, he, as the man she loved would have done and had done for him.

"Bonnie," he took a step forward, drawn to her like never before. The other two people occupying the room disappeared as far as he was concerned.

"Hey Jeremy," Bonnie rose slowly from the bed and then was scooped up into arms that held her too tightly.

Her mouth was covered with another and Bonnie could taste the beer and vodka Jeremy had been drinking.

Other than slight revulsion, Bonnie felt…nothing.

That freaked her out more than anything. She bled for this man, died for this man, and here she was back in his arms, kissing him, and there wasn't so much as a flutter in her heart.

Something was indisputably wrong with her.

Damon averted his gaze. There were something's a vampire should not be subjected to.

Caroline covered her smile with her hand. Things felt like they were falling back into place.

Only…they weren't.

Chapter end.

**A/N: A change gon come. What that change will be…I'm still in the process of figuring that out myself. Please, I beg of thee to let me know what you thought of this. **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thank you, kittens for the awesome reviews for last chapter! Here is the latest! Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: These characters (with the exception of my OC's) are the property of LJ Smith/CW Network. No copyright infringement is intended.

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><p>The concept of better intrigued Bonnie. In the last few years she never really gave much thought to better. Yet subconsciously she held on to the belief that things had to get better. They couldn't continue to slide downward, that at some point things had to make their way back to the middle. Simmer down. Begin anew.<p>

She never wasted time counting up the loss because there was no way to recoup. Her grandmother died—she hated vampires. Her boyfriend cheated on her—she busied herself in figuring out how to kill Originals. Her mother was turned—the limits she'd go when it came to self-sacrifice increased to near absurd levels. Her father was murdered right before her eyes—she lived in denial that it hurt as bad as it did after having one good cry about it. She lost her life...twice…

She ended up having company in the form of Damon Salvatore.

For just that second Bonnie was willing to put all her grievances with Elena's boyfriend aside because the end was imminent. It would have made lugging that baggage to wherever or whatever came next pointless. It had been far too late to change anything. The course was set, there were no detours left.

Damon had finally gotten the truce he wanted.

It may have been implied reliant on the times Bonnie came through with a life-saving spell, but she never explicitly said, "Yeah, Damon we can bury the hatchet." And she certainly didn't count it as a truce in introducing him to Shane as her friend. The word came out as more of a bitter retort than a factual statement.

But she relied on Damon for practical reasons because he wasn't one to get his emotions tied up into things. Well, no that's not entirely true. Damon was highly emotional. Too emotional at times. He could be chillingly heartless. Or passionately overwhelming. He wanted things his way and his way only. There was zero room for compromise.

Bonnie hadn't known what to expect in sharing a roof, meals, basically a life with Damon, and surprisingly it didn't turn out as bad as she dreaded. They got on one another's nerves. She's stormed out on him too many times to count. Yet she came back because they were all they had, and even having Damon was better than having nothing at all.

Now, a week later after returning to her life she found herself missing him at odd times. If she saw a plaid shirt in a window display at a store, or sunglasses she'd start smiling for no damn reason. Bonnie couldn't even eat pancakes or eggs without thinking about that vampire.

He hadn't left, made a sneaky exit when the gang arrived, vying for her attention, coming to grips with the fact she was alive. Here. Real. Elena ugly crying, Matt blubbering trying not to cry, Caroline holding on fiercely to her left hand, Jeremy glued to her side, Stefan telling her he was glad she was back. Tyler repeating his sentiment; Alaric looking strangely relieved and somehow guilty. Even Enzo had appeared mumbling in that accent of his about the gang now being able to go on tour.

Damon stayed, hung out on the outer ridges making a quip here and there, but otherwise saying little. He made sure to keep his mouth glued shut about Esther and the charm she spelled that made it possible for him to enter Mystic Falls. He knew once word got out about it, especially to Bonnie she wouldn't hesitate to whip up her own batch of charms once again making life easier for blood fiends. She said she needed a minute and that's exactly what he would give her. A reprisal of sorts for as long as he could.

When night bled into early morning and Bonnie was all talked out, he took that as his cue to leave with the faintest clue on where to go. He had made it to the end of the hall before turning around at her summons for him to wait.

Some distance down the hall Carlisle, a warlock from The Quarter hid himself as best he could. The second he caught a glimpse of Bonnie, he whipped out his cell and sent a text informing Esther the spell had worked.

Now that Bonnie stood in front of Damon, she had no idea what to say to him. She had already thanked him for coming back for her, for healing her ankle and other superficial injuries, for staying. What more was there left to convey?

Damon stared down at her expectantly seeing the wheels turn in Bonnie's head, but not being privy to her thoughts.

"Are you going back to Georgia?" Bonnie began and inwardly kicked herself because that wasn't precisely what she wanted to know, but the info would come in handy.

Some obscure part of Damon deflated.

"I haven't given it much thought. Stefan and I can only take living under the same roof for so long before we're back to wanting the other dead."

"Well…um…wherever you decide to go…stay safe."

Damon drew a measured eye over Bonnie. "You sure that's all you wanted to tell me, say to me?"

Automatically feeling defensive, Bonnie folded her arms over her chest. "What else would I have to say to you?"

"I don't know, Bon Bon, you tell me?" he playfully bopped her nose. She not so playfully slapped his hand away. "I'm curious. You're used to having me around and it bothers you, you won't have twenty-four seven access to me. It's all right to admit it."

"All right, yeah it's time for you to go and dial down on that ego."

Damon laughed at Bonnie fighting valiantly to prevent a smile from forming on her face. Impulsively he pried her hand away and kissed her knuckles. "I'll see you later, Bonnie. Tell the rest of those losers to get the hell out so you can get some rest."

After delivering those parting words, Damon strutted down the hall. Bonnie rubbed her hand and disregarded her tingling digits.

* * *

><p>Situations, people, circumstances had a way of accelerating expectations in life, happening simultaneously giving very little time to catch one's breath. To think. Weigh options. Decline, rescind, or accept the presentation of events unfurling.<p>

Her mind should have been on her next step but it kept reverting back to the other night-morning. Damon's cool lips on her skin. The tingle. The surprising fire. It brought a memory to the forefront of Bonnie's mind.

Kai reaching for her, stance threatening, Damon intervening using his vampire speed and strength to shove him up against a wall. His proclamation:

"_We might be having a bit of a disagreement but don't you _ever_ lay a hand on her."_

It had been surreal and almost didn't feel like Damon was actually coming to defend her, but he had. There was no erasing what happened. Especially considering that not two seconds prior, Bonnie refused to do the spell that would return them home, even after Damon pleaded with her willing to risk unleashing Kai from his prison.

That was unlike him, right?

"So I was thinking we could look for a place."

Bonnie jolted out of her musings. She was positive Jeremy mentioned something about them looking for a place, but her thoughts were stuck on 1994 Mystic Falls. She stepped out of the bathroom and stared at him lounging on her bed.

"What?"

Jeremy sat up placing his feet on the floor, "Yeah, I was thinking, now that you're back and for good that we could get an apartment together. You've been squatting here but you're not enrolled in school, and I still have some money left over from my parents' life insurance policy. I think living together is the next step."

"Ah," Bonnie let out a nervous sound, "Jeremy...that's a big drastic step and…we're not together," she tried to frame her words gently, but they were still laced with steel.

The hopeful glint in his eyes faded. Since she had been back they hadn't had "the talk". He hadn't gotten it off his chest how her dismissal of their relationship over the phone, and only catching a glimpse of her before she disappeared to the other side drove him to insomnia and mood fluctuations. They hadn't said one word on the future, their future and where things would go.

Yes, bringing up moving in together could be seen as out of left field and illogical, but Jeremy was done moving at a snail's pace. He loved Bonnie. She loved him. There wasn't anything standing in the way—from what he could see that was stopping them from being together.

He stood to his full height. "I know we haven't talked about us, but it's not like I haven't tried to get you alone. If you're not with Caroline, you're with my sister, or you're just walking out the door to do something. Bonnie," he reached for her hands, "no one understands better than I do how it feels to come back from the dead. I've done it so much I'm an expert. You're probably feeling displaced and that you don't belong, but all you need is stability. We can have that."

Bonnie appeared to mull over his words but let go of his hands and placed the room between them. "You think moving in together will equal stability?" she grabbed Ms. Cuddles off her bed. "What did you do miss most about me, Jeremy?"

A quizzical expression colored his face. "Everything. I missed everything about you, Bonnie."

"But name one specific thing."

He approached and when he was close Jeremy ran his blunt fingers over her cheek. "I missed this. I missed being close to you. Feeling you. I could hear your voice when I called your phone and left you drunk voicemail messages…"

Bonnie blinked. "You left me voicemail messages?"

"Yeah. I talked your mom in continuing to pay your bill just so I could hear your two second greeting. Other than memories and pictures, your outgoing message on your cell was all I had left of you, Bon."

"You missed the physical parts of me?" Bonnie wanted clarification.

Jeremy looked uncertain but nodded infinitesimally.

"How did you grieve? How did you deal with me not being here?"

Jeremy wanted to be honest, but if he were honest it could backfire. No girlfriend wanted to hear her boyfriend coped with her death by drowning in booze or being balls deep in another girl. Girls in his case. Plural.

"Bonnie…look I probably could have handled my grief better but…I was so lost. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to feel anything. If I were a vampire I probably would have turned it off, but I had to wake up each day knowing that the people I considered friends, family were alive at the expense of my girlfriend's life who _lied _to me knowing there was no way for her to save herself. I was pissed and in my anger I slept around. A lot. I'm not proud of that. I just…I just didn't know what else to do because day in and day out all I felt was resentment."

Bonnie's nose tingled. Softly she said, "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you the truth until literally the last minute. That was wrong of me to do; to lead you to think I would be fine. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt you, Jeremy. Whatever you did in your grief…maybe it can be justified, people grieve in their own ways. I've lost you. I know what that feels like. I knew I was willing to do _anything_ to bring you back. Even plunge this world into hell." Pause. "Did you at any time try…try to find some loophole or spell or hope that I could be brought back?"

Jeremy blanched. Remorse and shame twisted his stomach into knots. The tips of his ears became enflamed as well as the back of his neck. No. He hadn't. He hadn't lifted a finger to try to bring Bonnie back. For the second time. For the second time he dropped the ball. And instead of her ghost enabling his inaction, that honor had been given to Johnnie Walker and the countless procession of nameless females looking for a good time, no strings.

His silence was incriminating, but nothing Bonnie hadn't come to expect. She chortled at the poignancy of the matter. She, who's always so willing to go the extra mile for those around her sometimes couldn't be bothered to do the same for her. What made it hurt all the more was it stemmed from a person she had given her heart and body to. Not little things to her.

Bonnie could fester in her anger about that, but anger fueled a witch's taste for vengeance. But this unerringly closed the door for good on their chapter. She was done being an afterthought or no thought at all.

Jeremy, however, wasn't going to give up on trying to salvage things. He fucked up and fucked around. But he could fix it. He could make things as they were, only better.

"Bonnie…"

"I know what you're going to say. You love me. You would have done everything in your power to find a way to save me if you thought there was a solution. We owe it to ourselves to pick up where we left off, but…I can't. Not this time."

Fear clawed at Jeremy's spine. A light film of sweat coated his entire body. Bonnie was slipping through his fingers despite her standing right in front of him. She was already miles away.

"If you need time, I can give you that. Please just don't throw us away, Bonnie."

"It's not time I need, Jeremy. I just need a fresh start. A _real _fresh start. I need to figure out who this version of Bonnie Bennett is. What she wants for her life. What she's going to do with it this time around. I can't be the girlfriend you need. So to answer your proposal, no I don't think it would be a good idea for us to find a place together. I'm still searching for my place in this market."

Gnawing on the inside of his cheek, anger making his nostrils expand, Jeremy cleared his throat. "So that's it? We're done? For good?"

Bonnie hesitated. There was comfort in knowing she could just pick back up with Jeremy like putting on an old coat, but that wasn't what she wanted. And if she was comparing her relationship to wearing a garment, she didn't know if that was good or bad in terms of the fate of their relationship. Going with the old and familiar could make one complacent. Bonnie wanted—no _craved_ movement in her life.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Well," Jeremy averted his gaze. "I think you're making a mistake."

Bonnie's eye crinkled at the corner. "And it would be a mistake for me to act like the last five months of my life didn't happen, and pick up where I left off."

A shroud of silence engulfed the room until Jeremy ruptured it. "I'm sorry my love for you isn't enough." Pause. "I hope you find happiness. I have to go."

Bonnie watched as Jeremy stiffly left the dorm room, and blew out a breath.

Literally two seconds later Elena sailed into the room, face pensive, a sign she heard the tail end of their conversation.

"Hey," Elena dropped her satchel on her bed.

"Hey," Bonnie murmured.

The doppelganger briefly bit into her lip. "You broke up with Jeremy?"

"To break up with someone you actually need to be with them to break up with them. I was just reiterating what I said to him over the phone five months ago."

"But I thought for sure…being back you'd want to rekindle what you two had. He was a wreck, Bonnie. You should give it a chance."

"Yeah well, I should be with someone out of obligation?" she snorted derisively. "I need to work on me for now, Elena. I can't clean up anyone else's life when my own is a mess. If there was one lesson I've learned it's that one. And no offense, but you should be the last person dispensing relationship advice."

"Okay…ouch."

Bonnie tilted her head to the side, "Jeremy may have slept around and behaved totally irresponsibly, but you had your memories of Damon wiped clean. You cheated," she stated bluntly. "Cheated yourself out of coping with your grief."

"Bonnie, my grief over Damon led me to getting hooked on witch drugs, and feeding on people left from right. I was dangerous."

"Most vampires are, Elena. Par for the course. Don't get me wrong, I understand. But when are you going to fight to be strong to slay your demons yourself?"

"You think I didn't try to fight?" Elena laid a hand on her chest. "You think I wanted my life to fall to pieces over loving a guy?"

"Well, honey it did, but you didn't seem to do much about it other than rehash old wounds. I'm guilty of taking on your problems as if they were my own thinking it was my job," Bonnie chortled. "And that hindered you. We're all guilty of hindering you.

"Damon is back and instead of facing him, and what you two meant to each other you're living this Stepford vampire life, but it's your decision. I'm officially staying out of your business," Bonnie placed Ms. Cuddles back on her bed and reached for her purse. "I'm late for an appointment. See you."

In stupefaction all Elena could do was watch Bonnie stroll right by her and exit the room.

* * *

><p>"Ain't No Sunshine" by Bill Withers began playing next causing Damon to laugh self-deprecatingly.<p>

He told himself he could do it. He could stop loving her as easily as he stopped loving Katherine, wash his hands clean, move on, and never look back.

Then some small voice in the back of his mind would ask him bitingly: who the fuck do you think you're fooling? It had been child's play to fall out of love with Katherine after worshipping at her alter for nearly two centuries because her look-alike had been standing right there. Not exactly waiting in the wings but close enough.

All he mounted to doing was trade in an old model for a newer version. And it happened so seamlessly Damon had convinced himself he and Elena were kismet because as much as he may have loved Katherine, without Elena he could hardly function let alone breathe.

They weren't together and he was breathing quite fine.

Damon had yet to return to Savannah preferring to squat on Alaric's couch. It had only been a few weeks, but the dark vampire knew he was wearing out his welcome as well as leaving a very noticeable dent on the sofa. He paid rent in booze; and if Ric wanted the good stuff to keep coming he just needed to look the other way when he headed off to do the professor thing at Whitmore.

Now Damon was at his second favorite place in this small town.

"You gonna tap that or not?"

Damon's disembodied voice floated to her ears from across the bar. Elena made no outward sign she was hearing something she shouldn't have been able to hear. She kept her smile in place while wrapping her fingers around the neck of the beer bottle. Liam's dark eyes glittered with intentions that spelled his lips would be making their descent to her mouth sometime within the next few minutes.

She and Damon were in a weird medium. Her memories of him where still locked in the confines of her mind, and though she's been plenty tempted to have the compulsion reversed, she hadn't exactly taken the plunge. Her argument with Bonnie still fresh in her mind.

Honestly, how was she to know that Damon would come back from the dead? Elena hadn't prepared herself for that possibility—that she could recall. Nonetheless, she knew her drastic decision hurt him.

Despite Damon's personal feelings on the matter, Elena liked where she was now. She didn't want to do anything to jeopardize that. However, the Damon she's seen and come to know in the last month intrigued her. He had a personality, face, body that was hard to ignore, but her mild attraction to him...did she want to start fresh?

From what she remembered, Damon had an obsessive steak which led him to pursue something but mainly _someone_ doggedly, and he hadn't been doing that. For all intents and purposes he had been laying low. Would it be a wasted effort to have Alaric reverse the compulsion if Damon wasn't, for lack of a better word, harassing her to remember their love? He seemed to want to move on which was what she was trying to do.

From across the bar Damon watched his ex flirt and carry on as if life was wonderful. The back of his throat should have been filled with the acrid taste of bitterness, but instead it was the sweet flavor of regret he was choking on. He wanted to mess with her because he was bored. Maybe see if he still had the ability to draw Elena's undivided attention even if she didn't want to look in his direction to acknowledge his existence.

"I bet you fifty bucks his version of talking dirty includes using clinical terms for his…"

"Damon," Elena's reprimanding voice trilled sharply in his ear. He chuckled and tossed back another shot.

His laughter was quickly silenced when the poor man's version of McDreamy stroked Elena's jaw before leaning in for a chaste kiss.

Somewhere in the back of Damon's mind he realized that seeing the woman he loved, traveled dimensions just to be reunited with kissing another man should have filled him with unmitigated rage. He was mad, yes but not to the point he wanted to hurt someone. Instead he felt hollow and disappointed. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

Damon's eyes went on a tour and after returning from checking out the back of his skull, he realized the bar had a new patron in the form of Bonnie Bennett.

His silver blue-eyes followed her as she crossed the bar, not even pausing to say hello to Elena who Damon noticed stiffened once becoming aware of her bestie's presence. Hmm, the elder Salvatore wondered. It wasn't like Bonnie to give Elena the cold shoulder, and he couldn't help but be curious as to what led to the snub.

She had parked herself at a table and pulled out a file folder and began leafing through it. Interest piqued, Damon swiped his tumbler and bottle of bourbon, and made his way over to her table helping himself to a seat. Poured himself a drink.

Bonnie didn't look up. "You're bothering the wrong girl, aren't you?"

"Nope. I'm getting on the nerves of the right one," he grinned. "What's all this?" Damon fingered a few papers Bonnie had spread out over the table. "This doesn't look like official witch business."

"Because it's not." Bonnie briefly glanced at Damon, then turned to thank the waitress who dropped off her drink. "It's the contract to my new house," she beamed.

Damon's brows knitted together. "House? You bought a house? When? And how do you know how to buy a house?"

Bonnie snorted and took a sip of her club soda. "Economics was my minor. I called a realtor and had her search for foreclosed properties. She found something in my price range. I'm using part of my dad's life insurance policy to cover the down payment. There you go."

"Who sells a house to a nineteen year old?"

"Someone desperate enough to make a sale in this still recuperating economy. Aren't you going to say 'Congratulations Bonnie'?"

"I would if I didn't think you just made a bonehead mistake. How are you going to pay for a house when you don't even have a job, let alone a college degree to land a job to pay for said house? And speaking of college, I thought you had or I should say I thought Caroline compelled you back into Whitmore?"

"Shows how much you know," Bonnie winked. "Do you think I would make a big purchase like a house and not consider every variable?"

Damon placed his elbows on the table and leaned forward, "Do I need to bring up prior examples of your bad decision making skills? Because I can and will if I have to."

Bonnie tapped her fingers along the table's surface. "No one needs to remind me of the decisions I made in the past," her eyes unconsciously wandered over to Elena. "I know what I'm doing."

Damon grunted, "So you mean to live alone in a...how many bedrooms?"

"Three. And a two-car garage."

"So you mean to live alone in a three bedroom, two-car garage pleasure palace?"

Bonnie twisted her lips, "I wouldn't phrase it that way but yes. I'm not opposed to having roommates."

She looked at him all bright-eyed causing Damon to clear his throat and sit straighter on the chair.

"Can you help a friend out by looking at this contract to make sure I'm not being scammed out of my money?"

Damon snatched the document out of her hand and grumbled. "You should have asked me to go with you from the start."

"I could have but I wanted to do this on my own because I was doing it for me."

A wave of silent understanding passed between them.

"I think I've rubbed off on you too much," Damon shook his head feeling wistful for some bizarre reason.

"Yeah you probably did. I don't mind it so much."

And it was just like that Damon had forgotten about Elena and her stupid human crush, his hurt feelings and quasi-crushed pride. Bonnie, once again, gave him something to do. Purpose.

"What have you been up to these days?" Bonnie questioned and kind of marveled at the speed in which Damon's eyes moved as he read the contract line by line. He was already on page three.

He shrugged, blindly reached for his drink, and tossed it back. "Looking for food."

"That's all? I thought you would have dedicated your time on trying to figure out a way to reverse traveler magic over Mystic Falls. Aren't you dying to go back to the boardinghouse?"

Damon paused in his reading, staring at Bonnie in the recessed lighting of the bar. "A change in scenery never hurt anyone. What about you? I thought you'd be chomping at the bit to find a spell to undo what Markos and friends did?"

"Old Bonnie would. New Bonnie is soon to have a house that needs upgrades and decorating. How good are you at wielding a hammer?" she tacked on a smile.

Elena had thrown surreptitious looks at Damon and Bonnie the minute he got up from his table to join Bonnie at hers. Their conversation competed with the one she tried to hold with Liam. Bonnie bought a house? Damon complained about not being there with her? Bonnie didn't want to find a way to get rid of the magic bubble over Mystic Falls? What exactly was going on? Nothing was exactly falling into place like it should have.

* * *

><p>She didn't want a party, sit down dinner, a backyard boogie, or anything resembling an orchestrated affair welcoming her back from the dead. Caroline accepted the challenge and came up with a doable compromise sending out invitations via text to meet up—when schedules allowed, but at the very least arriving within reasonable time at the local college bar.<p>

There weren't any ostentatious decorations hanging from the rafters. Apart from icicle lights that stayed up year round, no special table linens, no band or DJ. But the owner of the bar did "agree" to concoct a special alcoholic beverage in Bonnie's honor.

Caroline carefully handed the martini glass brimming with a dark purple liquid with a lime wedged on the rim over to Bonnie.

"What is this?" the young witch accepted the glass and stared at it questionably.

"It's a new drink called Orphic. It means mysterious, entrancing, beyond ordinary, understanding. I think that sums you up pretty well. Try it."

Bonnie took a quick sniff before tasting the drink. It had a kick that opened up her nasal passages. Sweet on impact but a little tart going down. Overall not bad.

"Verdict?" Caroline pressed.

"It's good. I like it. Thanks for having the bar make this for me."

"It was the least I could so since you wouldn't let me throw you a much deserved party."

Parties often led to disasters, complications, and Bonnie simply wanted to avoid them at any cost at the moment.

She and Caroline wandered off to another section of the bar. Several of her friends were there trying to be as nonchalant as possible, and not treat this like the celebration it was supposed to be. Matt and Jeremy were playing darts. Stefan stood off on his own nursing a beer.

"What's up with those two?" Bonnie nodded in Tyler and Liv's general direction. They were seated at a table throwing not-so-subtle looks at one another.

Caroline's eyebrows mashed together in consternation. "I'm not really sure. They've just been hanging out a lot lately. We pretty much know where that's headed."

"Speaking of future hook ups… what's been going on with you and Stefan?" Bonnie coyly took another small sip of her drink.

"What about me and Stefan?" Caroline wiggled in her shoes.

"You two have barely said more than five words to each other, and not too long ago you were thick as thieves. The only time you're mad at a guy is when you like him."

Caroline pinched her lips together while Bonnie brightened.

"That's it! You like Mr. Tortured and Brooding, and let me guess he's not returning your affections?"

"It's complicated."

"I imagine it would be."

"It's not that I'm pissed off because I have…that my feelings for Stefan have changed, but the fact he threw everything away in favor of starting over without, at least, having the courtesy of informing anyone that he was leaving his old life behind is what bugs me the most. It's like he didn't care."

Bonnie drew her tongue over her bottom lip observing Stefan who was so clearly listening to their conversation. "I don't think him not caring has anything to do with it. You have to look at it from his perspective, Caroline. He's a vampire and what do most vampires have to do every decade or so to avoid suspicion? Start over. He was doing what came naturally to him. He's not like you. He's not still friends with people he's gone to elementary school with because they're all dead. All he has is his brother and you know their history.

"Picking up and moving on is how he survives. Leaving things behind regardless if he's ready to move on is all he knows how to do. And it's something you're going to have to learn to do and keep doing. You have another good six maybe seven years left calling this place home before the whispers and speculations start. Are we all supposed to move on together, never having any semblance of a life outside of each other? You saw how well that worked out for the Originals."

Caroline thought over Bonnie's words. No. She hadn't factored in how hard it might be for Stefan to stick around when it's become instinctual and habit for him to pack up and move on, and especially after suffering a great loss like thinking his brother was dead.

Still, answering one of her phone calls and explaining as much would have sufficed.

"I can understand all of that, but it still doesn't excuse his dicky behavior," Caroline sniffed.

Bonnie had been filled in on the drama surrounding Caroline, Stefan, Ivy, and Enzo. The aftermath of the impromptu visit and dinner from hell, and their subsequent conversations.

"You're right it doesn't. But he also doesn't need anyone's permission to live his life."

Stefan looked directly at Bonnie who held up her drink towards him. He inclined his head, a ghost of a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. Bonnie floated off and was quickly intercepted by Matt.

Elena sidled up next to Caroline who appeared to be lost in thought and a million miles away. "Hey, you okay?"

Slapping a smile on her face, Caroline held up her near empty glass. "Never better. I'm going to get a refill."

Bonnie laughed as she was twirled around. She was having fun—sort of. It was nice to be in this environment with her friends—she supposed, but a key element was missing that Bonnie didn't want to think too much about.

As the night wore on and she danced until her feet hurt, and one particular person never showed his face, her happy mood dissolved until she felt flat like lukewarm soda.

Cell phone pressed into her hand, eyesight going slightly in and out of focus, Bonnie searched for one name in her contacts list, and mashed the call button when she came across it.

It only rang once before being routed to voicemail. "Hey…guess you're really busy tonight. Don't know if you got Caroline's text about tonight," she sighed. "If you did…it's real…fucked up you're not here. Hopefully you're not being murdered. All right I should probably end this before this turns embarrassing. I may have…kind of wanted you to be here. Crazy right? The world is shortly to end when I actually want your company. Okay…call me back if you want, I guess."

Bonnie hung up, snapped her eyes closed and prayed she hadn't made a fatal error in leaving Damon that message.

* * *

><p>They shut the place down. Matt was nice enough to give her a ride to her new home a mile or so outside of Mystic Falls city limits.<p>

Bonnie had to use a bit of force to wrench open the front door of her very first home. She giggled—drunkenly at the prospect she was a nineteen year old homeowner, but then her giggles tapered off once she realized she would live in all this square footage alone.

Dumping her purse, kicking off her mules, Bonnie meandered her way up to the master bedroom. She fell backwards on her bed, bouncing along the mattress. Blowing hot air out of her mouth, Bonnie turned on her cell to see if she had any missed calls or new text messages.

Nothing.

Sitting up she reached into her bedside drawer and pulled out her old cell phone. Powering it on, she scrolled through her voicemails. Over a hundred. All of them from Jeremy. A part from the last three.

Frowning, Bonnie quickly played them feeling her heart annoyingly speed. She activated the speaker phone and curled on her side.

"_That's it? That's your outgoing message? The one time I'm actively seeking out the sound of your voice that's what I get? Perfect"—_Bonnie smirked—"_Anyways, I'm in your room which doesn't sound as stalkerish as it probably is. There were something's I wanted…needed to say to you. Didn't get the chance."_

Thoughtful pause.

"_The thing is, Bonnie, I don't know what I'm supposed to say to you. I can talk my way into and out of anything but_ (irritated sigh) _I don't know how I'm supposed to sum up what's going through my head without sounding like I'm Klaus reciting a poem, or Stefan brooding about the animal bloodlines he's cut short._ (snorts) _I guess I could start with the basics and say…thank you. As much as I want to strangle you for sending me back, sacrificing yourself for a schmuck like me, you did the one thing I don't think I could ever do. Especially not for someone who treated me the way I've treated you. I'm sorry."_

The message ended and not two seconds Damon had called back to continue his monologue.

"_Me again. This is easy. I can say this and not feel weird because you'll probably never, ever hear this and I can deny I was so pathetic to, not gonna finish that thought_ (laughs) _You've been saving my worthless ass mostly for a third party since the beginning, but this time I want to believe you sent me back for me. I didn't deserve it. I don't deserve to be here and you sure as hell don't deserve to be stuck where you are and with a psychopath like Kai._

For a second time the voicemail cut off leaving Damon little choice but to dial her up once more.

"_Now I'm annoyed. I swear on my life, Bonnie I'm going to get you out of there. I just need you to be all right, and not give up because I'm not giving up on you. You didn't give up on me even after I've given you every reason in the book to do just that._ (phone beeps) _Now that this message has gotten ridiculously long, I just want to say one more thing. I might miss…"_

Again his message was prematurely cut off leaving Bonnie with an anticlimactic ending. What was he going to say before technology so rudely intervened?

Bonnie exhaled shakily. The screen asked if she wanted to save or delete the messages. Drawing a corner of her lip between her teeth, Bonnie pushed the save button and shut off the phone.

She was filled with vindication that for once her sacrifice hadn't been taken in vain. Was in a mild state of shock that Damon would even go through the trouble of calling her cell just to hear her voice through a recording, and purge what he inevitably would have taken to his grave.

Suddenly Bonnie just wanted to see him.

Her phone started ringing—the new one and when she saw who it was on the caller ID, that pound in her heart abruptly ceased.

Bonnie quickly answered. "Damon?"

"Bonnie, I don't normally thank this person but thank God!"

"Damon?" his voice had faded in an out. Bonnie jumped off the bed and began pacing. "What's wrong?"

"I can't talk long. How fast can you get to…shit…I don't know where I am."

"What's going on? Why are you whispering?"

"Because," he gritted out, "I would get myself out of this but they put something in me. It's hampering my abilities. Shit," Damon spat in frustration.

"You've been anally probed?"

"Now is not the time for jokes!" he rebuked. "Bonnie just… please! Find me."

The dial tone blared in the confused witch's ear.

"Damon?!" she shouted futilely.

Bonnie's hand tightened around her phone, and she had a mind to throw it clean across the room. Two weeks of peace. Two weeks after coming back that's all the time she had been allotted.

Her eyes slowly sealed themselves shut and when they opened again Bonnie didn't know her irises had changed color. Time to kick a little ass.

Chapter end.

**A/N: I forewent writing a big reunion scene because I have to write one in my other fic Everybody Wants to Rule the World, and certainly didn't feel like repeating myself. I really hated how the writers tried to demonize Stefan for wanting to move on, so I definitely wanted to address that because I feel Alaric/Caroline/Enzo were being grossly irrational toward Stefan. Anyways, what has Damon gotten himself into now and what's up with Bonnie? Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think. **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Still interested in this, read on. Thanks for the continued support, guys!**

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith/CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

* * *

><p>Oval shaped teeth gouged her bottom lip, blood-filled capillaries burst and bled but Bonnie hardly even noticed the taste of her own blood. She had unearthed a dusty, old map of the world and unfurled it along the floor of her in-dire-need-of-repair living room.<p>

"Stupid, _stupid _freaking vampire!" she muttered heatedly undergoing an assortment of emotions ranging from anger to worry to resentment.

Part of her wanted to rage this wasn't her life anymore, or more to the matter this wasn't the life she wanted to resume. Escaping one prison just to be thrown back into the same penitentiary of coming to the rescue of some dummy that couldn't stay out of trouble for two minutes.

Yet she tempered those contemplations because it was Damon. Whatever caught up to him now sounded far too serious to be taken lightly. He said that they put something in him which cut off his ability to heal. He was hurt. Alone. Trapped. At the mercy of someone who clearly wasn't doing him any favors nor had his best interest at heart.

"Okay," she breathed and perched her hands on the very knees she rested on.

Bonnie hadn't exactly executed a spell since being rescued from 1994. She knew she had her magic. She could feel it buzzing and moving like a current of renewable energy right underneath her skin, but would it act up? It wasn't known for always being cooperative, and when she couldn't burst through certain strongholds built in her own mind, it made executing a spell a hit and miss calamity.

"Concentrate, breathe," Bonnie coached, closed her eyes and began chanting the spell she used to track down Silas when she didn't have his blood or anything belonging to him to use.

She had had the help of Expression then. What was flowing through her now was her ancestral magic. Spirit magic. Would they even allow her to perform the spell without there one) being something which tied directly to the person she needed found, and two) being a disastrous consequence she more than likely would end up paying?

They needed to remove that stick from their asses and let her do her thing.

The candles around her burned higher and brighter. Picking one up, she spilled the wax on the map and never ceased in her chanting.

The line of wax headed west, then north and stopped on a town Bonnie had certainly never been to called Vanceville.

Snatching her phone, Bonnie called Stefan.

"Hey, Bonnie? What's up?"

She sighed heavily, "It's Damon. Someone kidnapped him."

"What?!"

"Yeah, look listen—"

"—he hasn't been back for two months and already he's being snatched. I bet it was that asshole Tripp Fell. You need my blood for a—"

"—I already did a locator spell. He's in a town called Vanceville. Ever heard of it? It's," Bonnie studied the map. As much as she used them she still hadn't mastered reading one precisely. "It's maybe twenty-five miles north of Mystic Falls."

"Why would they have taken him there?"

"I don't know, Stefan!" Bonnie burst in exasperation. "I just need you and possibly Enzo to meet me there."

"All right. Maybe I should…"

"Hell no," Bonnie bounced to her feet and cut off Stefan's train of thought because she knew exactly what he was about to suggest. "Getting her involved is the last thing we need to do. Don't say anything to anyone about what's going on. We need to hurry. I'll see you there."

"I should swing by and pick you up."

"We don't have time for that. Just get Enzo and get to Vanceville as soon as you can."

Hanging up her phone, Bonnie moved through her house like a hurricane with a very distinct mission. She stripped as quickly as she could out of her party dress and heels, replacing them with sensible dark attire and flat boots. Not one for needing weapons, Bonnie brought along Grams and Emily's grimoires just in case, and a minute later sat behind the wheel of her Prius firing up the engine.

"I'm coming, Damon. Just hold on."

* * *

><p>Shredded and torn and no, he wasn't talking about his leather jacket or fitted Levi's. His body was one mangled web of awful, but he supposed that was the byproduct of being tossed to his death down a cliff with lots of sharp objects waiting to deliver a killing blow to the back of his skull.<p>

He landed with a rib fracturing, hip displacing, tibia breaking thud on asphalt after rolling several feet only to end up on another deserted road in the middle of nowhere.

Blood erupted from his mouth in a metallic puddle under his chin. He was positive he was blind in one eye, deaf in one ear, and lost several of his long and short term memories to the steep side of the cliff.

Slapping one hand against the road he attempted the impossible by lifting his body from the rocky pavement, but he didn't have any strength and fell right back into a prone position. Shooting pain ricocheted through him, firing like traffic signals.

Lots of people wanted him dead. This came as no terrible surprise. If you knew him for longer than a day, you'd probably want him dead, too. Yet the thing he prided himself on was turning tides in his favor, making an enemy into an ally, and an ally into a friend for life. He had been a little rusty as of late, but Damon Salvatore thought he had been making remarkable strides.

Coughing up more blood and maybe a few ounces of pride, Damon breathed roughly through his nose. He did his best to take an inventory of his injuries.

His knuckles were bruised, bleeding, and swelling. His right ankle was clearly broken because his foot was twisted inward more than it should be. One of his ribs punctured something and he was internally hemorrhaging, and the blood was rushing up his esophagus leading him to vomit it up on the pavement. He wasn't healing and that might have had something to do with that chip they put inside him which dampened his healing abilities. He wasn't sure.

In the distance he heard the squeal of tires as a car or truck came to an abrupt stop. Damon listened carefully and tried to roll over into a nearby patch of bushes to give him more cover. It was night, but he was still too visible for his liking. The moon was basically acting like a spotlight trained on him.

Three car doors opened, only two of them shut. Three pairs of feet stomped along the edge of the road, and bickering voices could be heard.

"You should have staked his ass and _then_ tossed him."

"I couldn't reach the stake, but I got his ring."

Just now realizing his finger felt lighter than usual, Damon slid his left hand into view and cursed belligerently. Oh—they most assuredly was going to pay for fucking with him. As soon as he healed. As soon as he could peel himself off the ground and repay their kindness.

"Sunrise is still three hours off. We can't risk him getting help and bleeding some helpless person dry. I say we go down there and finish him off. He couldn't have gotten far. Not in his condition."

"You positive that doctor pulled off what she was paid to do?"

"Only one way to find out."

"Grab the gasoline and the rope."

_Shit,_ Damon bit down on his lip hard enough to bleed. If only his regeneration wasn't compromised at the moment. He was a literal sitting duck with only a thorny bush as his source of protection. The dark vampire had never been big on prayer or asking any deity for help, but he was willing to toss up a few Hail Mary's for someone, _anyone_ to intervene.

_Bonnie is coming. Bonnie will be here, _became his mantra. Damon could curse the fact he couldn't give her specifics on his location or who took him. His cell battery only had so much juice left, but he knew she was the most resourceful out of the bunch he grudgingly called friend, and if he had any hope in hell of getting out of this mess she was his savior.

Damon hated he had to ruin her coming home with business as usual. But honestly, it wasn't like he planned to get vampire roofied and dragged to the middle of nowhere just for kicks.

Testing the flexibility in his fingers and toes, Damon wasn't in as much pain as he had been moments ago, but he was still far from being a hundred percent and able to do any significant amount of damage to the three hillbillies currently scaling down the cliff.

Whatever it took, he'd make it up to her.

* * *

><p>Her car tires skidded along the asphalt when she braked suddenly. Bonnie had taken the highway leading to Vanceville using only her instincts to direct her because, of course, the locator spell had not given her Damon's exact location.<p>

"This is the spot," she said to her empty vehicle and proceeded to climb out of the car.

The road was perilously dark. The kind of dark that made it hazardous for her to travel without the use of a flashlight or night vision goggles. The kind of dark that gave birth to nightmarish imaginings. Bonnie could hardly make out her hand in front of her face. But she stared up at the moon, now partly covered by clouds.

She stopped walking when she heard the sound of an engine barreling down the road. She shrank against the shoulder, and hunkered down in the event it was just another motorist and not her reinforcements.

The headlights penetrated the darkness giving Bonnie a better idea of her surroundings. Bushes, rocks, and other debris found in nature where it out populated humans. Nothing memorable and quickly forgotten.

The car slowed to a stop and parked directly behind her Prius. She still didn't move from her spot, partially hidden though not extremely well until Bonnie felt it was all right for her to do so.

Car doors on both sides flew open and two men rose. From their silhouettes alone, Bonnie easily identified them. Plus, she'd recognize Stefan's hair anywhere.

She stood to her full height then.

"Bonnie," Stefan jogged over to her. "Are we close to finding my brother?"

She nodded. "He's…" Bonnie looked around seemingly distracted, "somewhere around this area."

"There's not much out here," Enzo, too scoped the area. "Nothing but this highway, the occasional road sign, and vermin."

"Isolated to dump a body," Stefan supplied and cracked his knuckles.

He and Enzo had spent the thankfully short car ride heckling over who would take Damon, rounding out their list of suspects, and disagreeing or agreeing but not really getting any closer to determining the truth. Their only common thread—outside of being vampires, was Damon and for him they managed to put their grievances aside to help Bonnie look for him.

They both locked their gazes on the witch awaiting directions.

"We should continue on foot," Bonnie suggested and began walking.

Stefan and Enzo fell in step behind her and kept quiet utilizing their enhanced senses to sniff out their brother, or the ones who could lead them to him.

The sonata of night serenaded them and Bonnie wanted to tell the crickets and whatever the hell else that scuttled along to shut up. Because of the dark, sound seemed far more amplified than it probably was. She was spooked even with two vampires at her back; Bonnie could say she was a little terrified.

The trio may have walked about a quarter of a mile from their parked vehicles when Bonnie stopped abruptly.

"I can't really tell…but is that a car parked in the middle of the road?"

Stefan strolled a few meters in front of Bonnie, "Yeah. The driver side door is open."

"Human?" Bonnie questioned.

Enzo inhaled deeply. "Three if I'm smelling things correctly. And…one Damon Salvatore. He's the only vampire I know that wears Dior."

"I don't even want to think about how you know that," Stefan twisted to face his adversary.

"Guys," Bonnie said scenting a petty argument on the horizon. "Focus."

"I am…shit!" Stefan exclaimed and then took off.

"What?" the young witch screeched.

"Gasoline…they're planning on torching my old mate."

* * *

><p>Damon did his best to will his vampire instincts to take over, to take control. He needed to become a monster of instinct and do what came naturally to him. He needed that base part of him to guarantee he'd make it to the next day.<p>

Fangs cut his gums as they slid from their sheath, and even that made his already burning jaw throb in even more pain.

Ignoring it and trying not to lose consciousness, Damon grunted as quietly as he could when he shifted his body to get a better view of the area behind him. His night vision was defective. He could hardly discern a shadow from a tree.

How had he come to be at such a disadvantage? When would he stop letting a nice pair of legs, blood red pumps, and C-cup boobs distract him?

He could lament about that later. In the privacy of his home—er, Ric's couch. Right now he needed to focus so he could win.

"Stop!" one of the hunters chasing him alerted his two henchmen. "Did you hear that?"

"I didn't hear anything and don't start that shit again. You're always hearing something that turns out to be nothing."

"I swore this time I heard something. Laughter."

"That was probably a coyote, dumbass. Now, _move!"_

"Coyotes don't laugh. Hyenas laugh. And coyotes don't live in this part of the US."

"Thank you for the unwanted geography and wildlife lesson. Can you all shut up? Your yapping is giving away our location."

Damon rolled his eyes. Their voices weren't the only cues a vampire used to track a human. Scent was a strong indicator of pinpointing prey. They each reeked of stale beer, sweat, and grime.

If he was about to meet his end—which he wasn't—but if he were did it have to be at the hands of The Three Stooges? Couldn't believe he was about to say this, but Damon preferred Jeremy Gilbert to be the one hunting him down. What happened to the hunters that actually made vampires run in the opposite direction? True, Damon had never personally encountered any, but he had heard the stories.

Sliding his right leg up, a needle-like sensation pierced him and white-hot heat licked his icy skin. This shit was hurting too much and he could barely move. All Damon could do was listen as the hunters scaled down the cliff, and once they reached the bottom, he heard gun chambers being cocked.

They might have been less than thirty feet away from his hiding spot. If they drew a little closer without sensing him, he might be able to use the last of his strength locked away in his reserves, and take out the mouthpiece of the trio, drain him, and that should be enough to give him an advantage to finish off the last two.

Bearing in mind he wasn't shot with a .50 caliber wooden bullet.

Trepidation and fear had been replaced with anticipation of the hunt, the kill. Just a little closer and Damon could spring forward and do what he did best.

Just as their boots came into view, they stopped.

"The hell's that?"

"See, I told you I heard someone laughing."

"No…I mean…_what_ the hell is that?"

The bubbling hysteria was easy to identify in the hunter's voice. Damon tried to see what it was that had the hunters seemingly rooted to the spot, but from his vantage point he couldn't see a damned thing. He trained his hearing to the west of him and picked up nothing.

But he _sensed_ something. Damon just had no clue if what he was sensing was good or bad.

"I don't know what that is, but we need to find that sonofabitch vampire, kill his ass, and then get the hell out of here."

Mocking laughter blended in with the wind. Now that Damon definitely heard and if he were honest he'd say it sent a chill down his spine.

There was a stretch of road some twenty miles outside of Mystic Falls that had claimed its share of lives. Damon wasn't exactly sure if this was it, but it could be. The curves were sharp and when the weather was bad, roads were slick, and visibility was terrible; fatal accidents occurred. There had been plenty of ghost encounter stories told by hikers who claimed to have seen or heard a ghost. No one believed them naturally. But no one exactly hung around this area after sunset to validate or discredit those claims.

If that's what had his pursers scared shitless then he'd like to shake the hand of the ghost that chased them off his tail.

"Whoa!" one of the hunters said. "It moved."

"Shit, man it's getting closer!"

"Look, if that asshole isn't dead he will be. We need to get out of here. Now!"

"No, the job isn't done and we don't leave any job unfinished. Pour the gas, cover as much area as you can, light the fuse, and blow the joint."

_This is just great_, Damon thought bitterly and was almost ready to give himself up. With them distracted it was the perfect time to strike. Pain, broken bones aside, he needed to move and he needed to do it immediately.

Just as Damon materialized from the shadows, one of the hunters suddenly took flight in the air, wailing his arms and legs, screaming for his mama to save him. The other two began randomly shooting their guns at the air, and Damon dove back down when a bullet went whizzing by his ear, actually took a piece of the outer shell with it.

Hissing in pain, he couldn't stop watching the show. Yet another hunter was seemingly plucked like a flower into the air leaving only one, who dropped his automatic weapon and began running for his life.

A body dropped from the sky, missing a head, which landed right in front of Damon's face. The eyeballs and tongue were missing and in the back the vampire's mind he knew that was symbolic of something, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what.

Man screams and high pitched squeals and an uncomfortable gurgling noise rent the air and seconds later it became deathly silent.

Swallowing, Damon waited a few minutes before pushing his body to his feet.

Hobbling from the outcrop, grimacing, Damon spotted two more headless bodies. If he were next he needed to get the hell out of dodge. Yet, he couldn't let these bodies go to waste. Blood was his elixir, his Nyquil, his Xanax.

Vamping over to the hunter closest to him, he picked the headless man up, and sank his fangs into a plaid covered shoulder. The blood was still warm but was cooling by the second and most of it had spilled on the road. He may have drunk half a pint, when a silhouette became visible in his peripheral vision.

The body didn't exactly fall out of Damon's hands. He'd use it as a shield if need be because he didn't know what he was dealing with, and he really didn't want to find out the hard way, or just seconds before his death.

His mouth opened to say something witty, like he was only catching a late-night snack and would soon be on his way. The words never made it. They were stuck in the back of his throat caught in a tangled web of blood, and fibers from the hunter's shirt.

Fire burst unexpectedly causing Damon to hiss against its brightness. He shielded his eyes, dropped the body. Damon took two steps and stopped moving altogether because it wasn't just a random fire.

It was a person. Engulfed from head to toe in flames.

Blinking rapidly to see if that might make what he was seeing more real, the confused vampire didn't know what to make of what he was seeing. Logic screamed in his ear to pick up his feet and kick rocks back to civilization. However, his curiosity told him to keep his ass right where it was.

_This _he had to see.

The body of flames drew closer bringing with it delicious and skin tingling heat. Weather didn't affect vampires either way. They didn't get hot or cold. But he was shivering and that might be a sign he was going into shock, which could happen if the body sustained too much trauma. Damon had blood but not enough to heal his more serious injuries, and they were beginning to take their toll on him.

Damon swayed on his feet, taking care not to add too much pressure on his compromised ankle. His vision dimmed and then resumed, and he winced against the amethyst and bluish-yellow flames that were steadily drawing closer to him.

Feasibly if this thing wanted him dead—he'd be dead. He still had his life although Damon didn't understand why.

Maybe he was being saved for last and like dessert this being wanted to enjoy his death.

"If this makes any difference…thanks for saving my life…although you might be seconds away from ending it. But I'm hoping you're a five-four Bennett who loves her some Damon."

Giggles, the sound of sultry feminine laughter assaulted his ears.

Then suddenly the bodies of the recently deceased went up in flames, their car exploded like a balloon with too much air in a helix of fire and black plumes of smoke.

"My ring!" Damon shouted.

Said ring was chucked at him, struck him dead in the chest and dropped in the palm of his hand.

The being continued on its trek. It now stood only ten feet away from Damon. He had nowhere else to go but up, and up was a long way to go.

The flames burned away leaving behind clouds and whiffs of white billowy smoke.

She emerged, not a hair out of place. Not a scar or burn mark to suggest she had been harmed. Skin the color of spun gold thread, eyes that could rival blades of grass stared owlishly up at him from beneath cheek kissing lashes. That crooked mouth was fixed in a knowing smirk. He looked her over from head to toe. Deceptive perfection that could be distracting stared back at him.

"Bonnie?" ambled stupidly out of Damon's slackened mouth. The world had to be out of warp because this wasn't making sense.

"Are you okay?"

Damon was stupefied. She was in touching distance and he couldn't make himself do it. Touch her to put his racing mind to rest that what he had just been a witness to had actually occurred.

He wasn't given the chance to grill her as he felt two beings approaching him from behind. When he whirled around expecting to be attacked, Damon sighed in relief. It was his brother and the guy who had an unhealthy infatuation with him.

Damon wasn't sure who was responsible for the headless bodies of the wannabe bounty hunters, he was most concerned with Bonnie and the latest trick up her sleeve.

"We need to get you home," Stefan sidled up next to his brother, taking his measure and seeing how bedraggled he was. Ever so slowly he stared at Bonnie, wearily.

Enzo stood some distance away because his self-preservation was petitioning that's exactly what he do.

"Wait," Damon shrugged him off and limped toward Bonnie.

Stefan attempted to reach for him and clutched nothing but air. "Damon…"

"I wouldn't get too close," Enzo advised.

He ignored the warnings and continued forward as if being drawn or invited. Hard to tell which. But Damon knew Bonnie wouldn't hurt him.

Even in the darkness of the night and the highway his mind buzzed with questions as to the step in witch evolution she seemed to have taken. He had never seen her wield that type of power before, and Damon wanted to know the source. What exactly happened to her during those days—to her, weeks to him—they had been separated?

Bonnie placed a finger on his lips. "I know what you're going to ask me, but I don't have an answer. Stefan and Enzo saw you were being surrounded, and when they heard those men were going to douse you with gasoline and light you on fire something inside of me…snapped." She couldn't explain it any better than that at the moment. "We need to get whatever they implanted in you, out of you. Where is it?"

Reaching blindly behind him, Damon scratched the middle of his back. He shed his jacket.

Neither Stefan nor Enzo moved until they received a cue from Bonnie it was all right for them to approach. Bonnie imperceptivity nodded her ascent.

"Hold still," Enzo stepped forward. "This may itch a little," he buried a knife in Damon's back who grunted, rooted around until he found what he was looking for.

"Ouch," Damon growled through clenched teeth and snatched the little device from Enzo.

It was a nondescript microchip that Damon effortlessly destroyed by compressing it between thumb and forefinger.

Their enemies changed each season, but now it appeared they were upgrading the way they dealt with the undead. This wouldn't bode well for any of them.

Damon carefully slid his jacket back on, wincing as he did so. "Let's get out of here."

No one disagreed with his proposal.

* * *

><p>The drive back to Whitmore City had been spent in silence. Bonnie could practically hear Damon's questions about the power she conjured, lengths taken to find him and do away with his captors. Yet she had her own questions as well.<p>

_Who were those men?_

_I don't know. _

_Why were you taken?_

_I'm a vampire. Someone always has a grudge against me._

_What's the last thing you remember?_

_Sitting at a bar (_feeling sorry for myself because despite being happy I'm alive and back with my brother, my life still feels empty, like its missing something or maybe someone_) having a bedtime drink. _

_How did you escape? Where did you escape from?_

_I don't know, Bonnie. I was knocked out, woke up in some basement or cellar or bomb shelter, fuck I don't know. I got out._

_Maybe you were released on purpose. They put a device in you to damper your abilities. It could have been a tracking device as well. Now we'll never know since you destroyed it._

_And if it was a tracking device then it's good I did. Could have led them back to where I hang up my leather jacket. If they let me go then why come after me again?_

_Don't know. Maybe you had help in escaping._

_Plausible but we'll never know. _

_Don't you want to know who did this? You're not the only vampire they can go after. Aren't you curious to find out who _they_ are and how they knew your secret?_

_Sure I'm curious but at the moment I just want to lie here, sleep this shit off, and…I'm sorry._

Bonnie, who sat next to Damon on her father's favorite sofa, stared at him demurely. "Why are you sorry?"

His legs were stretched out in front of him crossed at the ankles, a glass of scotch in his hand, compliments of a bottle Bonnie had Matt rescue from her house.

Damon blinked to stave off lethargy, but it wasn't working. He knew he wasn't supposed to even be here with Bonnie, but she had driven straight to her new abode, invited him in without the slightest hesitation, and told Stefan she'd take care of him with the authority of a case worker.

His brother hadn't argued. Actually his stupid little lips had twitched, a sure sign he was fighting with everything he possessed not to laugh. It was kind of the unspoken rule that Damon, when he found himself in this type of a situation, would get chewed out. He was long overdue for having someone reduce him to emotional rubble over the choices he made; however, in this case he was a hapless victim of prejudice. That should count for something, right?

Bonnie hadn't given him a tour though Damon tried to distract her with taking one of his own. Moving from room to room, poking his nose in places Bonnie didn't want anyone to see because the house needed some major work done.

What he saw Damon could admit to being mildly impressed but not exactly blown away.

"What color did you think about putting on the walls?" he took a leisurely sip of his drink. His chief injuries had healed themselves. The minor ones for some inexplicable reason were still smarting and not healing.

"Don't change the subject. Damon, what are you sorry about?"

"Where should I start?" he snorted and then looked at her.

Bonnie's viridian irises saw layers in him he thought didn't exist or were so corroded they weren't worth saving or mentioning. She wanted to hear about _him _and not how her presence in his life changed him. Bad or worse. She'd ingest what he had to say, process it, and make him see a different side of his psyche Damon didn't believe he actually possessed.

He may not have liked it, but it was something he desperately needed, he soon realized.

"I hated myself, Bonnie."—her eyebrows rose as to be expected—"I hated myself because you saved my life, but then you were stuck with Kai. I tried…I tried everything I could think to try to get you back after you sent that note. That note became my entire belief system."

Absorb, Bonnie told herself. His words sealed cracks that had been around for ages. "You came back for me, Damon. _You _came back because I knew you would. You were responsible for me coming back the first time and I…I never properly thanked you for that."

Damon lifted a shoulder. "I stopped thanking you for all the times you saved me and Stefan…"

"And Elena," Bonnie tacked on softly.

Damon paused before taking another sip but said nothing. "We're even," he muttered almost inaudibly and then cleared his throat. "Tonight…what you did…"

Bonnie flashed a smile, played with her fingers. "I guess you have a way of inspiring me."

Their eyes connected and the atmosphere shifted. The air thickened and the space separating them on the couch shrank though neither one of them actually moved to get closer to the other.

"Inspiring you to activate your magic," Damon's timbre deepened.

"Inspiring me in ways a naysayers words have no effect on me," she held his gaze for a second and rubbed at the goose bumps that suddenly accumulated on her arms. "We can talk about the rest tomorrow. It's late."

Bonnie rose from the couch and started straightening up the living area. Damon sat his unfinished glass of scotch on the floor by his feet.

"I heard your message," he informed while shamelessly looking at her ass. "You wanted me to come to your welcome back from the dead…again non-party."

Going rigid as her cheeks tinted crimson, Bonnie refused to turn and face Damon whom she suspected no longer occupied the couch and was hovering right behind her.

"And I listened to all three messages you left me," she peeked at him over her shoulder.

Damon's right eye crinkled at the corner. "Yeah, can I blame it on pancake withdrawal?"

Laughing lightly, Bonnie punched a pillow and tossed it on the love seat. She picked up its companion that was taken from her hands and thrown to the side. Damon's fingers lingered on her elbow and a current of something passed from his touch and zigzagged unchecked over her entire body.

When Damon inhaled Bonnie felt his knotted stomach right on her back. Those chills she experienced earlier morphed into tremors. This response to his nearness became visceral and potent, more potent than anything Bonnie felt or another being had evoked within her. One side of her wanted to run and hide, deny its existence, while the much more dominate side argued it was time to figure something's out.

What did she want? What was going to be the score of her life?

Four months, probably the longest Damon had spent with anyone not related to him, and with a woman he hadn't been bedding. He questioned what Bonnie was to him and had been incapable of coming up with a suitable answer. Hell, he still didn't really know, but he knew that she was important to him. Stood in a category on her own, and didn't even want to imagine living a life without having some kind of contact with her.

Damon knew he liked her. But…was that all?

"In your last message," Bonnie said, "you were about to say something but you were cut off. Do you remember?"

"Yeah," Damon's fingers moved from her elbow to her wrist, lightly griping it and using that leverage to turn Bonnie to face him. "I was going to tell you that I might…miss you a little bit," he smirked.

"Just a little bit?"

"You know I don't do well when it comes to expressing emotions that go beyond being angry or horny."

Bonnie stared at his hold on her. "What are you feeling right now?"

Damon tipped her chin up. "Grateful."

"How do you plan to show your gratitude?" the words barely passed between Bonnie's lips. Where he touched her, she burned.

"I'm sure I'll think of something."

Chapter end.

**A/N: To some, if Damon's dilemma looked familiar it's because it's from my other story Checkmate to which I've deleted because I knew I wasn't going to finish it, and decided that good piece of literature shouldn't go to waste. Still don't know who took Damon or why, but Bonnie has a new talent, and things between those two, well who knows where they may go. How exactly should Damon show his gratitude? Thanks for reading! Looking forward to what you guys have to say. **

**Special A/N: I've been noticing for months that people haven't been reviewing like they used to when it comes to my stories. I can't speak for other writers besides myself. I've made pleas in the past and afterward have gotten a response, but now I've gotten to the point where I don't think people care anymore. I adore receiving feedback. Other than entertaining you guys completely for free, I love reading what you have to say about these chapters/stories I literally become a slave to. When that fails to happen it hurts my feelings, point blank, and makes me feel like I just wasted my time. So I'm asking, for the amount of work I put in to make these stories as good as I can, please leave me SOMETHING behind. Lets make this a fair and even trade off. Thanks. **


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hey folks, this pretty much picks up where last chapter ended. Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Your words of encouragement really helped me through some hardships I've been facing. So thank you so very much! This chapter is long. Hope you enjoy. I'm still technically on hiatus, technically, I was just in the mood to update this. **

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW.

* * *

><p>The sense that she was doing something wrong in encouraging Damon to show his gratitude, dropped kicked Bonnie in the stomach. Like the sound of hooves pounding the pavement, an incessant drum beat, uncertainty was making itself known with every precipitous beat of Bonnie's heart.<p>

She swallowed thickly and conducted an inner debate on who Damon was, but most importantly, who he meant to a specific person Bonnie still on a good day called friend. The glacial blues that smoldered intensely while staring at her, not too long ago looked at another woman as deeply and hotly. Elena may have erased her memories of Damon, but he still carried around his memories of _her_.

Did she want to be in the way of that tsunami?

Inwardly, Bonnie saw herself already stepping aside, fading into the shadows to don her customary robes of sidekick and best friend extraordinaire. It was so easy to go back to the familiar rather than trod down the road less traveled. Be selfish. She saw it unfolding. Saw herself staring coyly at Damon before averting her gaze and putting space between them, feigning disinterest in his zeal to show his appreciation, and promptly showing him to the front door. He wouldn't put up much of a fight, having expected her response to his candor. And she'd go to bed, alone, and not think about what could have happened. Bonnie understood her role by rote and didn't need an understudy. It was five minutes to curtain call and rehearsals were over.

Damon's head tilted to the side in a bird-like manner which made a memory bloom in Bonnie's mind. The bird that flew into her windshield on the first day of her junior year of high school. The crow she sometimes saw in her dreams when Emily used to haunt her.

She and Damon had been connected far longer than she could have known, and until they were sequestered alone, learning their commonalities would have been impossible. Nevertheless, it made sense that in the end it would be the two of them facing the end—together.

That knowledge never made Bonnie feel closer to another person than she felt toward Damon, now.

"You never expected to make it back, did you?" Bonnie asked suddenly.

The question sparked confusion. Damon's eyes widened and then narrowed before his expression became carefully blank. "I don't know what you mean."

"When I touched you to send you back and nothing happened—twice, you didn't look terribly surprised or even angry. Why?"

Licking his lips, Damon took a healthy step away from Bonnie. He hated when she did this. When she asked him questions that made him _think. _Made him reflect that sooner or later because of all the hell he raised, shit he started, blood he spilled, the universe would finally deliver its biggest "Fuck you!" right to his address.

"No, I never expected to make it out alive. I mean, don't get me wrong, I was _hoping_ for a positive outcome, but I never diluted myself into thinking it would work out for _me_ in the end. It only seemed…fair."

Bonnie nodded reflectively, "You can be a real shitty person…"

"Thanks," Damon deadpanned.

"But even _some_ shitty people who hold on to their guilt, feel remorse shouldn't be exempt from redemption," Bonnie finished. She reached for Damon's hand.

He only expected her to hold it, but once she tugged and started leading the way to the staircase, an irritating flutter of nerves slammed into Damon.

What the fuck? He questioned. His reputation with the ladies was as long as the tax code; so why was he suddenly feeling light-headed like he was about to look at a nudie magazine for the first time?

Trailing soundlessly behind Bonnie as they took the stairs one at a time at a maddeningly slow and deliberate pace, they finally reached the second floor, trekked down a hallway, and stood outside of the master suite.

If he had a pulse his would have been straining the neckline of his T-shirt. Damon opted to keep quiet and let Bonnie lead because he was sure if he made an inappropriate joke it would destroy whatever was unfolding between them.

_Just go with it. Drift. _

Her warm, tiny fingers tightened around his. Damon returned the squeeze, kept his gaze locked on Bonnie, watching her for the slightest bit of hesitation or reluctance.

Bonnie crossed over the threshold bringing Damon inside her partially furnished bedroom. There were a few boxes stacked in corners waiting for her to do something about them. Overall it was neat, just a bit on the disorderly side.

The walls were devoid of personality or character, painted the usual eggshell white; closed blinds covered the windows, but the obvious focal point was the bed, a light gray platform bed with an upholstered button tufted headboard.

"How do you want me to show my gratitude?" Damon bit into his bottom lip while his gaze wandered over her entire frame. Body part by body part.

Bonnie flushed, "I'm sure that mind of yours has thought of a thousand and one disgusting ways to show your gratitude."

"You know me so well. Wanna hear my least perverted idea?"

"Sure."

"Um," he was caught off guard by her easy willingness to play along. Actions, in this case, would speak louder than words.

Bonnie didn't react when Damon's hands molded to her hips. They never broke eye contact, and the next thing she knew, she was being thrust backwards on the bed.

A yelp of surprise escaped her bowed lips when her back hit the mattress. And before she could admonish him, Damon was climbing up the bed, the movement of his shoulders not much different from a panther on the prowl.

Bonnie's mouth went dry as she pulled herself along the bed until she ran out of room, and smacked into the headboard.

Damon hovered over her, their bodies' alignment making her heart quicken anxiously. Bonnie balled the duvet and sheets in her hands, fighting on whether to push him away or wrap her arms around him. Bring him closer.

The scent of her nervousness was pungent but tasty. Damon unconsciously licked his lips and took in every inch of Bonnie's startled face. From the first time he saw her he saw her beauty, considered her one of the more attractive meals-on-legs in Mystic Falls, but that was as far as it went for Damon. A simple acknowledgement of her hotness.

Now when he looked at Bonnie it was almost like he was trying to convince himself not to get any bright ideas.

His knees burrowed into the pillow top mattress as he bracketed his hands on both sides of Bonnie's head, holding himself aloft.

"You brought me up here, Judgy. What do you want me to do?"

Nibbling a corner of her lip, Bonnie stared at a point over Damon's shoulder. He was just _way _too close to her. "I don't know."

This seemed like a good idea when she was downstairs, but maybe this was a mistake. She was beginning to crave something from Damon she doubted she could have, guilt-free.

"Well," Damon positioned his knee between Bonnie's splayed thighs. "I do know it's not to talk because we could have continued doing that in your living room on your hard ass couch."

"That couch is not hard. You just have no _ass_ for extra cushion."

Damon grinned annoyingly, "I'd take that as an insult, but I rather gloat about the fact you checked out my ass."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "And like I said, what ass?"

"I can guarantee it looks better without pants. You have a nice one, by the way."

"Thanks."

"Nice tits, too. Ouch!" Damon rubbed his sore arm after receiving a nice electrical zap.

"Let's get this back on track," Bonnie mischievously blew her fingertips.

Gritting his teeth, the chastened vampire said, "Sure, what would you like?"

"As a show of your gratitude, I want…I want you to tell me one thing about yourself that no one, not even your brother knows."

"Ah, can we go with something else?"

"No. Spill the tea."

Damon lowered his frame to the bed, lying beside Bonnie. She turned her head to regard him. Their legs ended up being entwined but neither seemed to take notice.

It didn't take long for Damon to grow distracted. His hand cupped Bonnie's face mapping the texture and softness of her skin into his memory. Bonnie wanted to do the same but resisted because it seemed too personal a thing to do. Unconsciously she scooted closer until they flirted with cuddling. But Damon took the initiative and pulled Bonnie closer leaving her no choice but to use him as a full body pillow.

Instantly she tensed, not sure where to place her cheek or if she should drape an arm over his abs. This was the closest they'd ever been on a flat surface, and was disconcerting to say the least because lying on a bed with Damon _never_ crossed Bonnie's mind. She wiggled around until she was comfortable, resting her cheek on his peck, draping her arm vertically along his torso.

Vampires were indisputably strong, but being huddled to Damon was almost like snuggling up to a live warm body. Must have been the blood he drank, Bonnie estimated.

"You're not as hard as I thought you'd be," she blurted.

Damon's eyebrow lifted, "Oh, I can be plenty hard. Want a demonstration?"

"Stop being gross. And stop stalling. Tell me one thing about yourself that no one else knows."

"Bonnie, you asking me that is almost the equivalent of asking who really shot JFK. I can't tell you everything about myself. You know a hell of a lot more than most. You should feel privileged."

"Wuss," she chided. "You should also feel privileged. No one knows I had a two-second crush on Klaus."

Damon scrunched his nose in distaste. "I still don't understand_ how_ that even happened or when."

Bonnie grinned. "I can't reveal everything about myself."

"Ah, I see what you did there. Won't work though, the reverse psychology."

Bonnie pouted.

Unthinkingly, Damon's hand roamed over her back causing Bonnie to melt at his touch. He was being uncharacteristically chaste. She being the only female he had been around for months, body on an enforced abstinence that it was screaming for a much needed release.

The flaccid muscles in his dick began to contract. He was getting hard and by the second. And just from fucking cuddling? Was he really this pathetic? Or was being around Bonnie just that hypnotic? Damon was willing to settle on the latter. In any case, he did his best not to focus on her warmth, or the way her breasts were crushed against his chest, and he most certainly _did not_ listen to the squishy and mouth-watering pound of her heart.

Drowsiness was chasing after Bonnie and it was being assisted by the soothing circles Damon rubbed on her back. It had been a long night of partying and then coming to the rescue. Yet again. The adrenaline was gone. Her lids drooped, but snapped open when fingers slithered under her shirt and made contact with skin. They were cool, cooler than she was and Bonnie shivered.

Damon's fingers traversed along the ridge of her spine and then expertly unclasped her bra.

Bonnie shifted to get up but Damon tightened his hold. "What are you...?"

"Shush," he interrupted. "I promise to behave myself. Just relax."

Bonnie squinted but simmered down and finally relinquished control. He wouldn't take things too far. He'd know when to stop. Bonnie just hoped the line in the sand wasn't too far down the beach.

Her shirt rolled up her stomach while Damon's hand continued its ministrations. She sighed involuntarily. It had been so long since she was held like this, and yep Bonnie had every intention of eating it up. With the way her life went, who knew when the next quiet moment like this would come.

For Damon though, a moment of panic seized him, and he felt for one dizzying moment that he was being unfaithful to Elena. The rare nights they spent just like this where getting off wasn't the main purpose of them spending time together. But then Damon recalled watching her with that Dr. Kevorkian in the making, kissing him. How _easy_ Elena had forgotten about him and moved on to someone else as if he meant shit to her. Resolved, Damon's irrational feeling of infidelity dissipated; yet something else just as disconcerting arose.

A profound feeling of intimacy; true and unfiltered intimacy.

He was used to being promiscuous, used to having occasional fake girlfriends he didn't give a rat's ass about, and meant nothing when stacked up against the two veritable loves of his life. But this was different. Comfortable in an unsettling way.

Part of him wanted to bolt. Leave a Damon size cutout in the wall, but the second Bonnie slipped her hand underneath his black tee his fear redirected, and in its place, bliss materialized.

Her hand was blazing, and Damon was pretty sure he was coming down with a case of goose bumps. Such a human response to stimuli he hadn't felt in almost two centuries that he sucked in a sharp breath, but tried to play it off as a cough.

Bonnie jumped, "You okay?"

"Super."

They seemed to sink lower, deeper into the mattress. Damon stared over the top of Bonnie's head, listened to her labored breathing. She was almost right on the precipice of unconsciousness. Another minute and she'd be floating away with the Sand Man.

"I miss it," he said.

"Miss what?" Bonnie asked sleepily.

Damon hesitated, fighting against his predilection to lie, and for once be raw and unfailingly open with someone he couldn't compel to forget his secrets.

When he spoke, the words were barely audible and graveled. "I miss being human."

Bonnie was wide awake now. She moved to sit up and Damon let her. He needed the space anyways because emotions he refused to feel like: vulnerability and hate toward his own pugnacious past were clogging his throat, and tying his stomach and ribs into knots. He shut his eyes, unable to look at Bonnie as he cracked open his vault. The prospect was terrifying to Damon.

Bonnie was damn near breathless. "You miss being human?"

Damon nodded his head against the pillow. "Don't misunderstand, I still love the fuck out of being a vampire, but…there are moments where I'm _tired_ of being this…statue. My thoughts, my wants, my behavior there's hardly been any change. I'm always moving, but inside I'm as complacent as the day I was turned. The world advances and you stay still even if you adapt to those changes. You make acquaintances and then they die, but not without spinning one lie after another so they can never know who you truly are, _what_ you truly are. It's lonely as hell being a vampire.

"Your humanity bleeds out of you, but you look for it in people, places, things, but it wars with this viciousness within you that just wants to destroy everything that crosses into its path. Miracles become meaningless. You're a sad story cloaked in pretty, indestructible skin, but you're as disconnected as a god trying to understand mortality."

Damon felt it safe to open his eyes and when he did, Bonnie was staring at him in quiet astonishment.

He swallowed audibly, "The reason I miss being human has nothing to do with starting a family or growing old, but because somewhere along the line I sold out my soul. Things my kind finds as a weakness: compassion, kindness, honesty, trust, humans see as strengths, and being without those things makes you nothing. And I'm tired of being nothing, Bonnie.

"So there. You know something about me no one else knows."

The silence was deafening. Moisture gathered in Bonnie's eyes to which she quickly blinked away. Even Damon's eyes had glassed over, but neither one of them actually shed a tear.

Bonnie smiled poignantly. "You're not nothing, Damon. Misguided at times, yes. You're like Tin Man looking for a heart when really you already have one. You've always had one."

"That's debatable," he ruled.

Shaking her head, Bonnie scooted closer to Damon. "You buried it under some pretense of what it means to be a vampire. A vampire can encompass traits that makes a human, human, but I get it's something that has to be worked at. Worked _for_. I believe you can and you have."

She traced the shape of his jaw, leaned down and kissed the tip of his nose.

A bemused expression crossed his face and before he knew it, Damon's hand was massaging the back of Bonnie's neck. Fingers raking through her soft hair.

"Like I told you before…there's hope for you, Damon. And you do have a soul. I've seen it. In the way you fight, in the way you…love. When you made those deals to bring me back. If you didn't have a soul, you wouldn't have lifted a finger to try." Pause. "Your secret is safe with me," Bonnie vowed quietly.

"And so is yours."

"What secret? The Klaus thing?"

"No…that you_ like_ me," and of course Damon had to widen his eyes when he emphasized the word 'like'.

She easily could have thrown out a snarky reply, but instead Bonnie said, "That's not debatable. I do. I do like you, Damon. More than you know."

* * *

><p>She looked so peaceful in her sleep. Young, relaxed, without a care in the world. Tucking a few errant strands of hair behind her ear, Damon gently outlined the shape of Bonnie's lips with the pad of his thumb. He shared a huge secret with her and now he was feeling out of sorts, worried about her perception of him. They had their own paradigm he enjoyed, and one Damon wasn't ready for it to change.<p>

Perhaps he was getting too far ahead of himself.

In any case, he carefully pried Bonnie's arm off his waist, slid his legs from hers, and got out of bed in search of his boots. It would be best if he left now to avoid any morning after awkwardness.

That's what he told himself as he went to do what only Damon Salvatore could do when he was feeling…abnormal.

* * *

><p>Bonnie's eyelids fluttered open an hour later. She stretched her arms above her head, pointed her toes, and whipped her head to the empty space beside her.<p>

Sitting up abruptly caused a severe blood rush. "Damon?" she called his name already knowing he wouldn't answer because he wasn't there.

Gathering the sheets up to her chin, Bonnie frowned as chilling emptiness filled her from top to bottom.

He could have at least stayed for a cup of coffee.

* * *

><p>The rustling of bed linens and a deep, male sigh made the only sounds apart from the occasional groan or creak of the walls of the homey apartment. Rolling over on his back, Alaric Saltzman was jolted awake at the sound of something banging on his front door.<p>

"The fu—," he reached awkwardly for his watch to gleam the time. It was barely seven a.m. On a Sunday!

Letting out a slew of expletives, Alaric threw off the covers, thrust his arms into an undershirt and made his way to the foyer.

"All right, I'm coming!" he bellowed over the constant pounding on his door.

He wasn't surprised but was definitely annoyed with who was dirtying up his non-existent welcome mat. Frowning severely, Alaric growled in a sleep-ridden voice, "What the hell do you want, Damon?"

The dark and lean vampire smiled without showing a hint of teeth. He was too bright for Alaric to stare at which only deepened his irritation.

"I know I'm not interrupting anything," Damon said and barged his way inside.

"No, please come in," Alaric griped and slammed the door close. "Seriously, Damon what are you doing here before fucking dawn?"

The two men faced one another, Damon with one hand behind his back, Alaric with both perched on his hips.

"I'm here to talk about your girlfriend of all of two minutes."

Alaric blinked and then rubbed his left eye. "Jo? What about Jo?"

"Based on the fact you weren't part of my rescue committee the other night, you have no idea I was kidnapped."

"Okay, you're taken like every other day. So I'm not following what Jo has to do with any of this."

"Thanks for the concern."

Alaric snorted. "You're still standing and breathing which means you're all right. What do you want a 'get well' balloon? A teddy bear?"

The words 'teddy bear' made Damon think of Ms. Cuddles. He shook the thought loose.

Damon began heading toward Alaric who stood straighter, and forced the last visages of sleep from his brain. It was always best to be on alert when dealing with Damon especially after he suffered some kind of attack or rejection.

Alaric could say that glint in Damon's eye—he had been on the receiving end of it plenty of times, and what came afterward usually ended with his neck broken in several places. The newbie Original would like to think he and Damon had finally had a breakthrough, and were past the petty stage of their bromance. Yet one could never be too sure which way the wind blew with Damon. He blew hot, he blew cold, or he simply blew up.

"One of my kidnappers said something about a doctor doing something to incapacitate me, I'm assuming, and they also gave away the sex of the doctor, but of course no name," Damon pulled his hand from behind his back revealing a manila folder. He flipped it open.

"Is that Jo's file?" Alaric asked, incredulous. "You stole her work file?"

Damon ignored the query. "Did you know that your lady doctor friend only began working at Mystic Falls Hospital Center the day _before_ I sent the Travelers into a fiery rapture?"

No, Alaric could say he did not know that, but again, what did that have to do with anything? "I'm not seeing your point. I'm seeing a coincidence, Damon, but nothing more than that. If you're suggesting Jo is a Traveler, that she was involved in some plot to kidnap and kill you, what would be her motive?"

"Outside of revenge you mean? Did you also know she worked as a consultant for a medical technology company, and what do you know," he said facetiously, "a chip of some kind of had been implanted in my back, but has since been removed," Damon snapped Jo's personnel file closed, and dug the pointy end into Alaric's chest. "How well do you know this woman?"

Alaric snatched Jo's file but refused to open it and leaf through its contents seeing it as a total invasion of her privacy, not to mention illegal. "Jo isn't a Traveler," he said definitively and despite his own misgivings.

A memory pounced on Alaric. He remembered when he tried to compel Jo and it didn't work. At the time, Alaric chalked it up to the fact he was hungry and it may have weakened his compulsion, but even that reason seemed hollow.

"She's not," he reiterated, stepped around Damon, and entered his kitchen where he slapped the file on the counter.

"Then consider this eliminating the possibilities. Look, I understand you're right there on the verge of going to second base with the chick, but just remember, new faces popping up in Mystic Falls hardly translates into anything good," Damon asserted.

Alaric stared at Damon not liking but not necessarily disagreeing with his assumption.

"If I find out she had anything to do with what happened to me…well you know what I'll have to do."

"Damon!" Alaric barked. "Let me look into this, all right?"

The black-haired vampire shook his head. "You're too soft, Ric. But, she is your girlfriend," he couldn't keep a straight face. "If anything alarming pops up on her, I want to be the first to know." Damon sauntered to the front door, but paused. "Oh, and don't forget, I really _suck_ at having patience."

Damon flounced out of the apartment with a wink.

Grounding his back molars on top of one another, Alaric eyed the file contemptuously. He really hoped Jo had nothing to do with Damon's kidnapping; that she hadn't come to Mystic Falls with ulterior motives. For once, it would be nice if he could meet a brunette who didn't have any kind of fixation with his friend.

* * *

><p>Stefan Salvatore picked at the label on his beer bottle. In his periphery he saw a trio of girls—well young woman probably in their early twenties—whispering conspiratorially to one another, giggling, and doing very little to hide their attraction to him. It would be so easy to get off his ass, approach them, engage in a little friendly chit chat and then pick one to feed on.<p>

He wasn't in the mood.

His thoughts were a quagmire changing shape before he could even make one cohesive.

They had no answers, no real place to start to gleam answers to Damon's kidnapping. The lone piece of evidence they did have was promptly destroyed once removed from Damon's back. A chip.

Dealing with monsters in the form of werewolves, Originals, hybrids was routine. They knew how to handle it or learned by trial and error. This time around, the stakes had risen without their knowledge. Who was their enemy, and what new toys had been created to wipe their kind off the face of the earth? Stefan found no point in asking why. The answer was more than apparent on top of being unsettling and fucking annoying to have earned yet another enemy.

Stefan took a sip of his beer, pulled his lips back from his teeth as the acrid beverage hit the back of his throat.

The teeth-grinding sound of chair legs scraping along the hardwood floor drew Stefan's attention. His eyebrows kissed his hairline. "Bonnie! Hey."

"Hey, mind if I sit with you for a bit? I'm supposed to be meeting Caroline and Elena for lunch, but I'm early. How you been?"

Stefan nodded absently. "Good. What about you?"

That question was a bit tough for Bonnie to answer. Part of her was feeling pretty good, but another part of her was annoyed. She told herself, numerously, her funky mood had little to do with the fact she woke up _alone _the morning after spending the night with Damon. And the fact two days had passed and she still hadn't heard from him. No, that wasn't the reason why she had to concentrate extra hard not to set something ablaze.

Instead, she beamed at Stefan. "I'm all right."

"Here let me buy you a drink."

"Oh, Stefan you don't have to."

He waved her declination away and called for the bartender. When the gangly man arrived, leering at Bonnie, Stefan loudly cleared his throat.

"Sorry," the barkeep shrugged sheepishly. "What can I get for you?"

Ensnaring the bartender until his eyes became opaque, Stefan said, "I'll defer to her. Make her whatever she wants."

"Can I get an appletini?"

"Coming right up."

"Thank you," Bonnie said to Stefan who turned his body toward her.

"You're welcome, and it's the least I can do." A beat. "Are you sure you're okay? The other night…"

Bonnie shook her head. She was perfectly aware of what happened, what she did. She just straddled the fence on whether she was ready to talk about it.

"The other night was…I can't even wrap my head around it. I don't know how I did it."

The younger Salvatore's lips pulled down at the corners, "You haven't checked your grimoire?"

"No. I know I need to."

"It was like you tapped into some higher level of consciousness with your magic."

"That's one way of putting it," Bonnie scratched behind her ear. "Magic can make you feel as if you hold the key to life and death right in the palm of your hand. It's an exhilarating feeling, but also dangerous."

Stefan nodded in understanding. Bonnie's natural proclivity for magic hardly differed from how he felt as a vampire. Most days, he could feel as powerful as a god; others—as weak as a sapling.

Sitting beside Stefan caused Bonnie to replay snippets of her conversation with Damon. The younger Salvatore never made it any secret how much he missed being human whereas his older sibling shunned the very thought of humanity like a genetic disease. Now knowing what she knew, it confused but fascinated Bonnie how similar, but still startlingly different the Salvatore brothers were.

She opened her mouth to say something, but was distracted. She chuckled, "I don't think your groupies are so happy that I'm hogging all of your attention," she motioned with her head towards the ladies who had been eyeing Stefan since his arrival.

He stared at them over Bonnie's head noticing their smiles and giggles had been replaced with eye rolls and pursed lips.

Stefan bumped his shoulder with Bonnie's, and upped the ante by leaning over and kissing her cheek.

Caroline, with Elena bringing up the rear entered the bar at that precise moment. She was smiling at something Elena said, but her smile slowly faded when she spied Stefan and Bonnie at the bar. That was nothing unusual except for the fact Stefan's lips were drooling on Bonnie's cheek. An uncomfortable heat rush up her spine.

Bonnie gently pushed Stefan away, a coy smile gracing her face. "Behave yourself, Salvatore. I'm not in the mood to defend myself against edge snatchers tonight."

Stefan laughed. "You can so totally take the one on the end."

Elena having caught on to what seized Caroline's attention, took in the sight. She brought her umber eyes to Caroline who began to look forlorn.

The doppelganger carefully nudged her friend forward to an empty table.

Bonnie's drink arrived and after thanking the bartender, she sipped it leisurely. "I think I just found my next favorite thing."

"Good, I'm glad you like it. Hey, have you seen or heard from Damon since the other night?"

Bonnie's stomach bottomed out. "No, I haven't. Have you seen him? I think he's avoiding me."

Several horizontal lines appeared over the caramel-haired vampire's forehead, "Yeah, I saw him this morning. Why would Damon be avoiding you?"

"I don't know."

"He's an enigma that's for sure but…I've noticed he's different with you, Bonnie. He always has been."

"Oh, I could tell," she replied flippantly and ignored the strange fluttering in her stomach. "What, with his insults, put downs, mockery, threats, and indifference, oh yeah I'm his fave."

Stefan guffawed. He had seen evidence of Damon's care for Bonnie. In small but no less significant instances that added up to something big and telling. Stefan thought of the time Damon quickly volunteered to come home when he was told Silas was impersonating Professor Atticus Shane to manipulate Bonnie to complete the Expression triangle. Or the time Damon stayed behind on the island to look for Bonnie instead of rushing off to be a shoulder of support to Elena—his quasi girlfriend at the time after Jeremy had been killed. Stefan saw it in Damon's pinched expression as he debriefed him on his plane ride with Bonnie who had gone on and on about bringing Jeremy back from the dead. How quickly Damon was the one to formulate a plan to resurrect her the first time. The signs were there that Damon cared for the young woman, but would remove your heart from your chest to suggest that to his face.

If there had been any lingering doubts they were removed as Stefan had watched his brother pour through books, staying up for days on end drinking only enough blood to remain lucid, jet-setting from coast to the coast searching out a way to bring Bonnie home. A person only moved heaven and hell for someone important to them. And not once did Stefan ever degrade Damon by saying he was doing all he could to impress Elena, make her fall in love with him again. Damon deserved far more credit than merely trying to improve the public's opinion about him.

He did it because his _heart_ wanted to.

It wasn't until last night, in seeing the scary and remarkable way Bonnie dealt with Damon's captors, and the worry marring her features once his brother was back in their custody, did it solidify Stefan's speculation.

This _care _went both ways. If this would lead to anything remained to be seen, but Stefan knew his brother, knew his patterns, behaviors. This was always the starting point. A main part of Damon's seduction technique usually began with saving a woman's life. After endangering it, of course, but that wasn't the point. Stefan just hoped that before Damon consciously or unconsciously did anything concerning Bonnie, he would settle his feelings with Elena once and for all. Having a third party in a two party relationship never worked out for anyone. He would know.

Stefan sensed that the rest of Bonnie's eating companions had arrived. He rose from the barstool, but absorbed the young witch's interpretation of his brother's treatment toward her.

"My brother insults, mocks, puts down a lot of people, but he only moves heaven and hell for a _very _select few and those few…he sees can hurt him the most if he allows it. You're far more important to him than even he knows."

"What?!" Bonnie blurted. She heard Stefan plain as day, but what he said had been _too _similar to what she said to Damon the other night.

Inquisitively, Stefan hitched a brow at Bonnie's perturbed expression. "I know it's a scary concept to think Damon values anyone…it does happen. For too long now he's just been obsessed with obtaining the wrong form of validation. Maybe someone will come along and shed a light on what he _needs_," he squeezed her shoulder. "Caroline and Elena are here."

"O-kay," Bonnie stammered. "I guess I should…yeah. I'll see you later, Stefan."

Bonnie quickly scurried off to her friends not really paying attention to the fact their smiles were as fake as silicon breasts, and their 'hellos' were as warm as Antarctica during the summer.

* * *

><p>The witch's proclamation had played itself on a continuous loop inside Damon's head, and repeatedly he told himself not to put too much meaning into it.<p>

But he couldn't. So he did what he did best. He ran. Once Bonnie passed out, he abandoned ship and headed for the hills. And had been avoiding her ever since. Well now he unwittingly ended up in the exact bar where she sat at a table breaking bread with her two childhood friends.

Spectacular timing on his part.

Since he already ran like a raccoon scenting fresh garbage, Damon pulled up his britches and made himself quite at home on the barstool. He wouldn't admit to feeling any kind of tension blanketing the room the second he and Bonnie locked gazes. But he knew it was there, could practically sink his teeth into it.

Damon plainly read her displeasure and smoldering condemnation for leaving her to warm that great bed of hers alone, but in his defense it needed to be done. Nonetheless, Damon had nodded and promptly turned his attention to the bottles of liquor that would eventually mingle in his vampire belly.

However, Bonnie wouldn't be so easily ignored.

The hairs on Damon's bare arms rose as if he were a conduit for static electricity. He snapped his head to glare at her, and she winked in return.

Snorting, Damon went back to his drink. Was this foreplay?

Matters weren't helped much since Elena was also there, and the two of them had had zero contact. At this point, Damon wasn't even sure if he had the stomach or energy to try to convince Elena to give their doomed relationship another chance. Would it only end up being more of the same? Or could they start fresh and hit the right stride this time?

Those would be easy enough questions to answer if she hadn't taken the cowardly route and had her memories obliterated.

It wasn't until he was on his death bed where Elena admitted to liking him just the way he was. And there he'd lain on another bed, this time with a witch who easily expressed liking him. More than he knew? What did that even mean? More importantly, why did he even care to want to know what it meant?

_Because it came from someone who didn't have Katherine's face. Because it came from someone I view as a friend_, Damon thought gloomily. Now sitting some distance away was the woman of his rumination and the leader of his ruination, and Damon couldn't even decide which girl he meant for either category.

He laughed tiredly to himself as he sipped his drink.

Both Elena and Bonnie were hip to Damon's presence, wasn't hard to miss him hunched over at the bar, his back to them. However, Elena was the one to get out of her seat and trek across the restaurant to the bar.

"I'll be back," she said to Caroline and Bonnie over her shoulder.

Damon glanced behind him. He tried not to let his disappointment show too much.

After realizing her eyes were squinting, Bonnie shook herself out of it and returned to eating.

"So," Caroline couldn't hold it in any longer, "how's Stefan?"

She hated that small pinch of insecurity she experienced earlier in seeing her best friend share camaraderie with Stefan who, she was more than aware could talk to whomever he liked. Regardless it sent Caroline hurtling back to her pre-vampire days where getting a guy to choose her over Elena was a morning, noon, and night hustle. She didn't want those feelings to transfer over to Bonnie.

Bonnie knew the question had been coming. Could see Caroline almost going blue—a true feat in her case, in keeping her mouth shut. Yet Caroline's chief concern wasn't on Stefan's present state of mind. Bonnie was cognizant of that as well.

"He's fine. If you miss talking to him, Care you know what you can do to rectify that. Until you do, I won't be playing middle man."

Across the restaurant, Elena slid on unoccupied barstool next to Damon, "Hey," she began nervously. "How've you been?"

"Kosher. And yourself?"

Elena bobbed her little doppelganger head. "Great. Um…so…I haven't seen you around…much. I noticed you weren't at Bonnie's 'Welcome Back_—Again' _party," she laughed blithely, hoping to lighten the noxious mood surrounding her ex.

"I was out keeping some hillbillies entertained," Damon liked to operate on the less is more side when it came to telling the truth.

"And that took precedence over Bonnie? Wait…" she gasped, "have we had this kind of conversation before? Where you were doing something else while we all got together…"

"Look," Damon stared her down then, "Elena as much as I would typically enjoy taking a trip down dysfunctional memory lane, how 'bout you save us both the grief, and get the highlights from someone willing to give your ass their undivided attention."—Elena blinked, _hard—_"I know you're just over here to make nice and have small talk while I get drunk, and regale you with a list of your non-existent virtues," he exhaled harshly. "Immortality notwithstanding, I just don't have that kind of time. Now, run along. Your food's getting cold."

Stunned, Elena automatically slid of the stool and traipsed back the way she came. Rejection, certainly not something she was accustomed to feeling; and Elena could say it was a humiliating feeling.

Bonnie stifled her giggles.

Chapter end.

**A/N: So how bout this chapter? Bamon divulging trade secrets, well more so Damon, but hey he told his secret to the one who matters most, imo, outside of Stefan of course. I did want to incorporate a Defan scene, but I can save that for later. From here on out I won't be following the show's SL, so there won't be any Gemini coven business. It'll be all original or as close to original plot from here on out, but I will probably use key dialogue from the show if it's fitting. Thanks for reading, kittens. Any feedback you want to submit would be more than appreciated. **


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